absence of touch
by toootsweet
Summary: Zim and Dib made a good team. They both knew it, it was indisputable. All their fighting, their reckless brawling, a kick a punch, it always boiled down to the same thing. A reluctant alliance, a compromise, an unstoppable team of fists and claws. but then its over, zim is recalled from his mission, dib is left bored and alone, wallowing in the absence of touch. ZADR
1. Chapter 1

Zim and Dib made a good team. They both knew it, it was indisputable. All their fighting, their reckless brawling, a kick a punch, it always boiled down to the same thing. A reluctant alliance, a compromise, an unstoppable team of fists and claws. They'd gone up against several enemies and always emerged victorious, until they'd been faced with an enemy that seemed too powerful to stop. It took every last ounce of their strength, all of their cunning, resources, strategies and a lot of time.

Kurt vlog was an underling of professor membrane, an evil scientist who had taken it into his head to create a virus that would bring humanity to its knees. He would then gain power by monopolizing the sales of the antidote. It was a simple yet clever plan that would have been a guaranteed success if it weren't for the combined forces of Dib and Zim.  
Dib wanted to save his planet, and Zim would never allow another being to be the one to conquer earth, much less want to rule over a bunch of brain dead zombies.  
Kurt however was a cunning adversary, and unlike professor membrane, who was still steeped in denial and ignorance, was aware of the existence of Zim. Dib had told anybody who cared to listen, and then some, and Kurt had listened. He'd unleashed a specially made virus that would affect even Zim.  
It had taken months locked in a quarantined room in Zim's base to finally produce an antidote they could release into the air and exterminate the virus. But they had succeeded and taken Kurt down.

Dib sat on his bed staring at his upturned rucksack of clothes, food and other miscellaneous items that he thought would be important on his journey. He was leaving earth. He'd decided it a while ago. Things had gotten monotonous and boring since Zim had left, and Dib found the silence ate at his bones, making him restless. There was no reason for him to stay anymore, Zim was no longer a threat to the earth, and Dib suspected, with an uncomfortable twist of his gut, that he might be dead. He pushed that thought away and continued to pack items into his bag. Zim had always been his enemy, and in the absence of friends, their relationship had been the next best thing. Dib missed the physical contact of their fights, even if an act of hatred, he was hooked to the feeling of another living creature being close enough to him, albeit with violence in mind, to touch his skin.  
In their months of cooperation, confined spaces, long hours together, working together, even laughing together, Dib had found in Zim, the potential of a friendship. It was a thought that gave him butterflies, and made him infinitely sad.  
He shouldered the rucksack and slowly made his way downstairs.

He would have to face Gaz. Gaz who was wonderful and terrifying, Gaz who had always reluctantly been there for him, Gaz with her head in the clouds and her feet on the ground, who knew where she stood and always seemed in control. She was his only friend, and despite her hostile facade, he suspected that she cared for him.  
He rounded the couch and cleared his throat.

"Gaz..." He started

"This had better be good" she said tearing her eyes from the book she was engrossed in.

"Yeah... I'm just saying goodbye. I'm going away for a while, I'm not sure how long. It might be a few months or..." He trailed off. He couldn't bring himself to say maybe a few years. Gaz picked up on his tone. She had been worried about him, ever since Zim had disappeared, he hadn't quite seemed his usual enthusiastic self. She wanted to ask where he was going, if he was ok, but the words just wouldn't come out. Instead she managed a brief.

"Right. Bye." She cursed herself and her inability to express herself.

"Goodbye then." He turned toward the door and paused, shoving his hand into his pocket. He pulled something out and faced back to Gaz, who was still staring at him, her finger on her page.

"Here" he said handing her what looked like a phone "in case you need anything, you can contact me"

And with that he left without another word. Gaz put the phone in her pocket and stared blankly at her page, until she heard a whooshing, from outside, and then silence.

**_VIRAL BREAKOUT LOG; DAY 1_**

_Dib sat in an uncomfortable chair in Zim's lab. The doors had been sealed, and they were stuck there for what looked prospectively like a long time._

_"MOVE earth boy that is ZIMS seat!" Zim yelled at him, carrying a lot of test tubes and science equipment in his arms and pak legs._

_"No I'm your guest I want this seat!" Dib didn't want the seat at all, but sharing such a close proximity with Zim for a long period of time seemed daunting, and he was on edge. _

_"I said MOVE from ZIMS chair!"_

_He kicked the side of the chair roughly, sending Dib tipping off balance and falling to the floor. In a panic Dib grabbed Zim's uniform, pulling him down on top of him. Zim screamed and landed on chair and boy, his outstretched arms still gingerly holding a flask of liquid._

_"Get off me FILTHY EARTH PIG! You almost made Zim spill the science JUICE!"_

_Dib stifled a laugh and carefully took the flask from Zim's hands. Zim pushed himself up off the floor and snatched it hastily, kicking Dib again as he tried to push himself up. Dib groaned. It was going to be a long night._

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS!**

**Hey guys, so I've read a lot of zadr fanfic and have always been disappointed to get to the last chapter of an unfinished fic and see this: "last updated 2007", so I thought I'd give it a go to write a fairly regularly updated fanfic. Also I'm not gona lie, keeping these guys in character will be hard, but you can comment and tell me what you think! **

**PLEASE RATE THIS 3**

**Mia out~**


	2. Chapter 2

Dib had left the atmosphere with butterflies in his gut. His seat belt was fastened across his broad shoulders, a thin t-shirt sporting count cocofangs concealed his faintly muscled front. His hair was short, his scythe long gone, replaced instead by a short cows lick that no amount of coaxing with comb, water and hair gel would convince to stay flat. He was excited and anxious, and as the last of earth's clouds flew out of sight, he was swept over with a wave of nostalgia. It was strange. As a child he'd been anxious to leave, and explore space, but then space had come to him in the form of Zim. Now Zim was gone and the urge to travel the cosmos had come back to him, his 20 years alive suddenly felt claustrophobic and earth bound.

He flicked through the controls absent mindedly, one hand tracing the strange Irken buttons, the other a scar on his shoulder. He'd taught himself Irken in the 9 years he'd spent fighting, studying and generally obsessing over Zim. As for the scar, it was a small, round bite mark, made by sharp teeth, to never forget.

Dib hadn't left with the intention of looking for Zim, there would probably be no point. He'd been recalled from his mission over a year and a half ago, promising to return soon and ensure the destruction of earth. He still hadn't returned. Dib could only conclude that he was dead, knowing the Tallest's true intention of sending him to earth, through his countless bugs and cameras set up around Zim's base. He had tried to tell him once, but it had fallen on deaf ears. They had probably gotten fed up with him, and decided to put an end to the insanity. Dib wouldn't have been so quick to jump to this conclusion, but had Zim been doing well, he would have expected him to at least send a gloating message.

Whether or not he had planned to find the little Irken invader, he found himself plotting a course for the Massive. His hand froze uncertainly over the control panel when he realised what he was doing, his fingers locked in place. What was he thinking?

_**VIRAL BREAKOUT LOG; DAY 5.**_

_Dib gritted his teeth. He was trying his hardest to concentrate on the molecular breakdown of a component of the virus. He was operating through a pair of rubber gloves and a sheet of plastic. A small microscope jutted out of the sheet of the glass. It was a delicate procedure and damn it he needed to concentrate, but Zim Sat beside him chewing on a sugary candy lollipop as loudly as Irkenly possible._

_"Damn it Zim! Shut up! My genius mind can't work with this kind of noise!"_

_"Obviously it's not as superior as ZIMS mind!" He grinned a jagged grin full of broken lollipop shards._

_"Gross! Zim, could your superior mind either help me out or get your superior butt over to the other corner? You're so distracting!"_

_"Zim will do no such thing! I do not complain when you laze around breathing loudly when ZIM tries to work!"_

_"Sleeping, Zim, it's called sleeping."_

_"Well if you did less of this 'sleeping' we would be making progress!"_

_"You sleep too!?"_

"_Not as much as you PITIFUL HUMANS!" Zim crunched on the lolly again._

_Dib groaned and his fingers clenched. He was going to go mad, he really was._

His fingers clenched. He hadn't decided where to go. He realised that he'd flown blindly into space with no real destination in mind. He supposed he would have flown to the nearest planet and check it out, but clearly that's not what was on his mind. Yes he was curious as to Zim's fate. Worried even. He missed their bickering, their conversations, the exhausting brawls that would leave them sprawled on the floor gasping for breath, until maniacal laughter bubbled up and broke from their lips in gasps and shouts.

Dib flicked the spittle runner onto autopilot and rummaged around in the back. Come on there must be one somewhere... He fumbled around in a dark overhead locker until his hand closed around something small and round. His heart leapt into his throat. Could it be? He pulled it out as quickly as he dared, and his hand came up with-  
An Irken disguise mechanism. A small disc capable of casting a pre-programmed holographic projection around the wearer, a disguise that could be turned off.  
He leapt back into his seat and plotted a course to the Massive.

_**VIRAL BREAKOUT LOG; DAY 10**_

_Zim and Dib were working in silence. Every now and again there would come a "hmmm" or a gentle clicking of teeth, but apart from that it was silent. Zim's fingers hammered furiously on his keyboard. He'd left Dib to the biology and was engrossed in designing a computer virus that might breakdown Kurt's firewalls, leading them to a clue or insight to the antidote._

_A short peal of laughter escaped dibs lips and he quickly clamped his hands over his mouth, his shoulders shaking mercilessly._

_"What's so funny Dib pig?!" Zim snapped "Zim is TRYING to work on some very important code!"_

_"I'm sorry" Dib gasped trying to quell the burst of giddiness. "It's just, well look at this!"__  
He held the book of biology and chemistry up for Zim to see. At the bottom of the page was an equation, the molecular structure of human… beans? And even better than that, where it should have said carbon, it said glucose.  
Zim began to laugh as well, which only fuelled Dib further._

_"Oh my God Zim," he gasped "you sound like an idiot!" And then his gasping laughter turned into a snort.__  
Zim roared with laughter.__  
_

_"- !PIG" he managed. He was laughing so hard he clutched his side, rocked back and forwards, and promptly fell off his chair. This was too much. Dib could barely breathe, he removed his glasses and wiped away the tears that were streaming down his face._

_"Fuck you!" Zim wheezed, still clutching his side.  
It hadn't even been that funny to begin with, but it had escalated until they were both incapacitated with laughter._

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS!**

**Yaay! I actually wrote 2 chapters in one day! Sometimes I think people forget how big dibs ego is too… Im really excited to do more, but please let me know what you think!**

**PLEASE RATE!**

**Mia out~**


	3. Chapter 3

Dib wasn't quite sure of the details yet, but slowly a plan was coming together in his Mind. It was not that he cared about the little green alien that had consumed almost half his life, he just wanted closure; Answers. He knew that if he didn't find out, he would probably wonder for the rest of his life, what had become of Zim?

Using the IDM (Irken disguise mechanism), he could perhaps infiltrate the massive. It shouldn't be too difficult, he considered himself a genius and he was flying an Irken ship after all. Then maybe find some answers?

There must be records of the deaths in their species, and if Zim's name showed up on it- he gulped, his stomach twisted in a knot. He didn't want to think about it. But if his name didn't show up, maybe he could find out where he was. And then what? Pay him a little visit? They hadn't exactly been friends. He wondered if Zim was still alive somewhere, did he care what had become of Dib?

Stop. Dib shook his head violently to dispel invasive thoughts, and continued to play the game he'd taken with him, laid comfortably back in the pilot's seat. On plotting the coordinates, he'd discovered a small wormhole not far from earth that cut the journey in half. Even with this reduced time, it was still a three month trip to the current location of the massive, travelling at warp speed. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was already 5 weeks in, and was running out of ways to occupy himself. As a result of boredom He often found his mind wandering back to the last times he and Zim had been together, confined in that tiny room. He was surprised they hadn't killed one another. A couple of times he'd considered calling Gaz on the handset he'd given her, but she probably didn't want to be disturbed. And so the memories flooded in, one by one.

**_VIRAL BREAKOUT LOG; DAY 15_**

_Something about this virus was different._

_"Zim look at this" Dib said curiously, pointing at the thing under the microscope._

_Zim's head appeared on his shoulder, his hands on his back._

_"Zim what the hell?" Dib shrugged him off. Apparently he had never heard of personal space._

_Zim grinned, seeing that it annoyed him, and put his hands on dibs face._

_"Aaargh oh my God Zim!" Dib yelled pushing him away._

_"Pitiful HUMAN! You are afraid of the hands of ZIM!" He laughed menacingly_

_"No it's just- OH MY GOD STOP TOUCHING ME!" Zim had wrapped his arms around dibs waist and was leaning really close to him, grinning madly._

_"Zim will do as he pleases Dib worm!"_

_Dib furiously tried to push Zim off, resulting in an elbow to the face. He screamed, and shoved harder._

_"Fuck you!"_

_Zim had gone limp, lying with his arms around dibs waist, draped across his chair and dibs lap. His body shook with laughter. Dib groaned and kneed him roughly in the stomach. Zim squealed and tipped off his chair, dragging Dib down on top of him._

_"God I hate you" Dib said rolling off him and staring at the ceiling._

_"I hate you more!" Zim gasped clutching at his middle._

**_VIRAL BREAKOUT LOG; DAY 20_**

_Dib was sleeping, and Zim was bored. They had come no closer to cracking Kurt's firewalls, or an antidote for the virus. It would still be a while before Zim felt tired, and he resented the human for leaving him to fuss over equations and codes he couldn't begin to concentrate on._

_He approached Dib, who was sleeping in a small nest of blankets and cushions, their temporary sleeping quarters, and sat down opposite his drooling face.  
He reached out his hand to shake him awake and stopped. He was intrigued by dibs hair. He'd only ever grabbed it roughly through gloved hands, and wondered what it felt like. Was it as course as his wig?_

_He removed his gloves and held his hand out gingerly. Dib shifted in his sleep, and Zim hesitated. He couldn't let Dib catch him. He held his breath and waited for Dib to settle, then very carefully reached out and brushed his fingers through his hair._

_It was soft, so much softer than his wig, and warm. Zim was fascinated, and brought his face closer, his antenna brushed through it, picking up the scent of hats pulled straight off a humans head. The faint smell of sweat and old shampoo mingled with grease and warm sleep smells._

_Zim had allowed Dib into his base, but under no circumstances was he going to allow enough water for him to wash himself in case he took it into his head to drown Zim in the acidic liquid. There was a nozzle on the wall that would release water if you bit it, allowing Dib to drink, but he had not showered in a long time, the cleansing chalk Zim had given him doing very little to keep him clean._

_Zim found himself running both hands through the human's soft hair, when Dib stirred again. His hand shot up and grabbed Zim's, giving it a squeeze._

_"What do you think you're doing?" Dib mumbled half-heartedly._

_"Examining" Zim said, really noticing dibs hands for the first time.  
There were so many fingers, so Many wrinkles, round nails instead of claws, soft, warm skin. He turned it carefully in his hands._

_"Can't you do that when I'm awake?" Dib said, his eyelids drooping._

_"No." Zim replied,_

_Dib didn't even care at this point, Zim's hands were soft, relaxing, and he drifted off, with the image of Zim's curious red eyes burned into his eyelids._

Dib curled his hands into a fist, and got up from the pilots chair. He removed his glasses and rubbed tired eyes. He hated Zim. Hated him for everything, and most of all, hated him for leaving. Hated him for hating him. He ripped his t-shirt off over his head and slid into the sleeping bag on the small bed in the hollowed wall behind the cockpit. He pulled the sleeping bag over his head, and his head down to his knees and muttered a small

"Fuck you Zim"

Before praying for sleep to wrap him in its arms and drown out the memories.

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS!**

**Well that was fun…. Idk I think it will get very zadr very soon, but not so much in the memories? We will have to see! Also I think it should be stated, though it's painfully obvious, that I don't know science. I'm hoping I can bullshit my way through this so, yeah I know if a scientist read this they would probably cry. Please, if you've read this and want to read more, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! It really encourages me to do more! ****J**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**Mia out~**


	4. Chapter 4

_**WARNING: this chapter will contain very graphic gore and fighting and stuff, please be advised.**_

_**Stay safe!**_

**VIRAL BREAKOUT LOG; DAY 25**

"_PUT IT DOWN ZIM!"_

_Zim continued to stuff the last of the bread into his mouth. Dib was furious._

"_ZIM WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WHEN I RUN OUT OF FOOD? I CANT LIVE OFF SWEETS!"_

_Zim cackled, crumbs flying out of his mouth. _

"_You will have none of Zim's sweeties! They are for Zim!" he went for the apples._

"_Oh no you don't!" _

_Dib dove at Zim, and tackled him to the floor, sending the bag of apples rolling across the room._

"_Get your hands off Zim" he hissed, kicking Dib in the stomach. Dib gasped and rolled off of him. Zim got to his feet, only to have them kicked out from under him. It had been a while since their last fight, maybe too long. This wasn't just about the apples, this was the build-up of every tiny thing they had done that had gotten on each other's nerves for the last month or so they had been cooped up together. The apples were merely a catalyst for their frustration, the blind rage that dib felt, the manic fury that was Zim._

_Zim's pak legs activated lifting him off the ground, towering above dib, who was now on his feet. Zim used his pak legs to manoeuvre himself, swinging around he kicked dib in the face. He felt his lip burst, and blood welled up in his mouth. His glasses were sent skittering across the floor, and he staggered back. _

_Zim stabbed out with a pak leg, which Zim grabbed, and twisted. Zim landed on the floor with an oomph. Then dib was on top of him, straddling him, his knees on either side of his chest. His heart hammered against his ribs, adrenalin pumping through his veins. He punched Zim in the face, blow after blow, until Zim's pak legs grabbed him roughly and picked him up. Zim was on his feet again, snarling deep in his throat. Dib spat a wad of blood and saliva in his face. Zim screamed furiously. He threw dib across the room, sending him crashing into some very important and very fragile science equipment, which shattered under his weight. Dib screamed in pain. Zim approached him cautiously on his pak legs. Maybe that had been too much for the human. Not that he cared, he just didn't want to have to take care of a blubbering baby for the next irk knows how long._

_Blood was running down dibs left hand, a shard of glass was sunk deeply into his flesh just below his ring and pinkie fingers. He swung out at Zim with his right hand, and landed a fist in his face. He managed to get in two sturdy blows before Zim grabbed his left hand, making dib cry out in pain. He tried to pull his hand away, and stopped short. His fingers. His fingers wouldn't move. He panicked, pulling harder, the extra force serving to only wedge the glass deeper into his hand. He whimpered._

"_Looks deep. Your tendons are probably severed," Zim observed casually "can you move your fingers?"_

"_N-no." dib managed. He tried to breathe deeply to calm himself, the pain had slowly taken over the feelings of rage._

"_You're useless like this. Stupid fragile humans" Zim muttered._

_After some feeble arguing on dibs part, and stubborn insisting on Zim's part, they had agreed that dib would bite the proverbial bullet, and let Zim fix his hand. _

_Zim had laid out a rather terrifying looking apparatus. Swabs of disinfectant, scalpels, staples, anaesthetic, what looked like a laser knife with adjustable nibs, and other miscellanea. A blue pen, had marked right up dibs forearm, the shard of glass now removed, left a gaping wound. _

_Despite the mild anaesthetic, dib was still acutely aware of the pain, and had in fact placed the leather strap of his belt between his teeth. He held it in his right hand, and waited for Zim to make the incision. He looked over at him, a small pink mask concealed his mouth, and goggles covered his eyes. His appearance did nothing to console dib, who was sweating profusely. Having retrieved his glasses, which miraculously hadn't shattered, he was able to see very clearly when, without warning, Zim made the incision._

_His teeth ground against his leather belt. Zim sliced the blade through his skin, a clean cut that ran up his arm, until he found dibs tendons. They were like elastic, and so had shot up his arm when severed, and stopped just below his elbow. Next came the fun part. Zim carefully peeled back dibs skin, stapling the wound wide open. Dib winced, he could feel it in kind of a numb stabbing way. The anaesthetic hadn't quite kicked in yet. He struggled not to jolt his arm against the restraint, and supressed another whimper. _

_Zim got to work, pulling the tendons forward, and reattaching them. He had to be especially careful, because even the slightest movement from dib, would mean he would never be able to move those fingers again. Dib was making a lot of movements._

"_Don't look! You make worm baby noises every time I try to do something important! Zim needs silence to work!"_

_Dib nodded, and obediently looked away, swallowing hard. His Addams apple bobbing up and down. He squeezed his eyes shut. He still made jerky tense movements every time he felt the cold of steel inside his arm. Zim hissed, annoyed. Fine, he'd just administer some more anaesthetic. He jabbed dib in the arm with a needle, and the painkillers shot into his bloodstream. It took a couple of minutes, but finally he relaxed a little more. Good. _

_Zim had finally fused the tendons back together using the odd looking laser knife, and was stapling the wound shut, when a giggle erupted from dibs lips, the belt slipping out from between his teeth. _

"_QUIET earth boy! Zim is not finished!" he snapped at him, tying a bandage around dibs arm._

"_pfffsssshshsssss" _

"_I said stop it!"_

_Dib was staring at the bandage Zim was winding around his arm, his eyes drooping slightly, a tilted grin on his lips. Then Zim realised. He'd given Dib too much anaesthetic. He wound the bandage carefully around his hand, and those soft fingers that were now swollen and ugly, but still dibs. He gently fastened the bandage, and attached the exercise elastic from his fingers to his wrist, dib giggling madly the whole time. Then he said something that made Zim's insides feel how it does when you miss a step._

"_You love me don't you Zim" he was grinning like an idiot._

"_NEVER! Zim loathes the earth pigs!"_

"_But you like _me_" he giggled "were best friends"_

"_Zim would never lower himself to become friend with the likes of you pitiful stink!" _

_And though his words were harsh dib was right. He'd never had a friend, and though they beat each other relentlessly, it was the kind of contact that he relished. In a way, they might have been friends. Zim cursed himself. What stupid thoughts were these!?_

"_Best friendsssss, because you fixed me"_

_He held up his hand for Zim to see, and accidentally walloped him in the eye, his goggles since discarded._

"_Argh! Careful with that! Zim will not allow you to hurt him with his own GENIUS repairs!"_

"_Woopsy.. Let me kiss that better" dib leaned forward, and slumped off his chair, his face landing in Zim's lap._

"_Euagh! Get off of ZIM!" _

_He struggled beneath Dib's weight and sighed. He extracted his pak legs for the second time that night, and gently picked him up. Dib dangled in the air muttering to himself as Zim carried him over to their 'sleeping quarters'. He laid dib gently down, and covered him in blankets._

"_You have to sleep Dib human."_

_Dib nodded dutifully, then with his good arm, he pulled Zim down on top of him. Zim squealed and pushed himself back up, batting the boys arms away. Dib looked at him, his expression suddenly very serious._

"_You really are my friend." He whispered up at the Irken "even though you hate me,"_

"_I know" Zim mumbled, tenderly stroking dibs face. His shot back looking horrified._

_What had that been about? Why had he touched him for reasons other than to hurt or annoy him? Or until tonight, to fix him? He had just looked so cute and helpless- no! His insides turned uncomfortably. He turned back to shout some obscenity to dib, but the boy was already asleep._

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS!**

**((Tl;dr for people who couldn't handle the gore: Dib hurts his hand in a fight with Zim, and Zim fixes him.))**

**I know nothing about doctor stuff, I just based dibs injuries off my landladies, and so im just going off what she said about tendons…..**

**Alright! Chapter 4 in the bag! I've been informed that my chapters are short, and yeahhhh (sorry), I'm just putting chapter breaks where I think the story would benefit from them? So yeah I think this one is a bit longer anyways, hope you enjoy!**

**I made a Tumblr for this fic in case you guys want to hassle me about it ;) : tooot-sweet dot tumblr dot com **

**s/o to the guest that pointed out, fanficnet wont support links, so you have to stick it in manually! (thanks)**

**Al always, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! It encourages the heck out of me.**

**REVIEW!**

**Mia out~ **


	5. Chapter 5

"Dib"  
Dib hung upside down from a white room, his feet planted firmly on the ceiling.  
"Yes?" He asked turning, to come face to face with Zim, who reached up and touched his face, which was only a head above his. Dib immediately fell, his feet flat on the ground facing the short Irken before him. He smiled at him. He still only came up to his chest, he still wore those stupid gloves, he still had those big round eyes, he was still Zim, and nothing had changed. He was alright. A sense of relief filled him head to toe. Literally. He could see it. It was blue and syrupy.

"Zim" he said, without moving His mouth "I thought you were dead."

Zim grinned at him, his pak legs extracting sinister and slow behind him, almost as if they had a life of their own.

"I am dead earth boy" he said quietly "but you can save me"

His pak legs twisted into his skin. He was naked. It felt warm, almost pleasant. His heart beat faster as they burrowed deeper. Zim was under his skin. Zim leaned close, standing on his tiptoes, wrapping his arms around dib's neck bringing his face close to his ear.

"Save me" he whispered into dibs skin. "Zim commands you to"

Dib wrapped his arms around Zim only to find his they were wrapped around himself. Zim was gone, his pak legs still in his skin. He opened his mouth to call out to him, but all that came out was a shrill alarm.

Dib jolted awake, the sound of sirens still ringing in his ears. Red lights were flashing on the cockpit. Dib struggled out of the sleeping bag and fell onto the floor. He leapt into the pilot seat of the spittle runner, his heart pounding in his chest. He belted himself in and flicked off autopilot. Outside the windshield was a vast asteroid belt. A huge asteroid banged into the side of the spittle runner, sending it spinning toward another one. Dib quickly steered it back on course.

"Computer! How big is this asteroid belt?"

"_Estimated remaining time, 20 minutes at current speed_." The computer replied.

Their current speed was 4 warp kliks. They were going much too fast to navigate through the lumps of rock speeding toward them. They had to go down to at least 3 warp kliks.

"How long will it take to safely slow to 3wk?" He asked, steering to avoid another asteroid.  
He swept past it, missing it. Just barely.

"_15 minutes for maximum safety_." Computer replied.

Dib didn't have 15 minutes. By then he could be dead.

"What about 5 minutes? What would be the effect on a human?"

"_For a fully grown Irken, there would be possible internal bleeding. Possible concussion_."

"What about a human?"

"_Error; data not found_"

He didn't have much choice, he scraped the side of another asteroid, again sending the spittle runner into a spin.

"I'm going down" he said more to himself than anyone.  
He could only hope the effects would be less serious for humans.  
His fingers danced across the keyboard, moving it down to 3wk, gently applying the brakes. But then the fingers on his left hand locked. He had never regained full mobility in them, and they slammed harshly on the keyboard, fully applying the brakes. He slammed against the seatbelt, the wind knocked out of him and his vision went black.

He woke moments later, though it felt much longer, to find a huge asteroid flying toward him. Hey quickly manoeuvred up, scaling it in the blink of an eye, and pulled up straight again.  
He quickly checked their current speed. 3wk. He sighed in relief.

The next 17 minutes seemed to take forever to pass, but Dib managed to slowly navigate through the asteroid belt and out the other side without hitting another asteroid. Once through, he flicked autopilot back on and slumped back in his seat.

Now that he finally had a moment with his thoughts, the dream came flooding back to him. It left him with a warm feeling, a strange tingling in his spine. He found his fingers tracing that old scar on his shoulder.

**VIRAL BREAKOUT LOG; DAY 30**

_Zim was a clinger. One of those people who fall asleep, and unconsciously wrap their arms around the nearest thing to them. Dib had noticed this on the first night. They had never been tired at the same time, and had taken it in shifts to sleep in the one makeshift bed at the other end of the room. Dib had seen him climb into the bed, between the blankets, and slowly fall asleep. He mumble gently and pulled cushions toward him, wrapping his arms tightly around them in his sleep._

_Since he had fixed dibs arm, they had both stayed up longer than usual, throwing their sleep patterns out of sync. It was five days later, and they were still sleeping at approximately the same time._

_After the first night, Zim insisted that Dib sleep in a chair, and give the bed to him. Dib refused, saying Zim was smaller, and therefore would feel more comfortable in a small chair. They argued about it stubbornly, and no real decision had been made, when Zim had crawled into bed next to Dib. He'd braced himself against the wall, and shoved Dib away with his legs, trying to kick him out. Dib had cried out, his arm still tender and sore from the recent surgery._

_"Stop Zim!" Dib hissed biting back tears of pain. "We can both stay."_

_Zim had let out a: humph! and settled down facing the wall.__  
And so they had begun to share the mess of blankets and pillows, Zim always finding something else to latch onto. Until__tonight__._

_Dib was asleep when Zim crawled under the duvets next to him, settling down to face dibs back. It was warm from his body heat, and soon his eyes began to fall heavy, and closed.__  
Dib woke up to something gripping his torso, and for a moment he panicked before realising it was only Zim._

_"Get off" he mumbled, trying to unlatch the Irken._

_Zim stirred in his sleep.__  
"Mine" he muttered dreamily, snuggling his face into dibs back._

_"No." Dib said firmly, pushing him off.__  
He didn't even wake up. Dib settled back down and drifted back to sleep._

_Zim slowly felt the heaviness of sleep leave his body. He was holding something soft and warm. It smelled faintly of soap and sweat, and was comforting to have in his arms. His eyes fluttered open, and he saw he was nestled into dib's back. He yelled and kicked him away. Dib woke with a start._

_"What the Fuck Zim?" He complained groggily._

_"You despicable human! You had your back in Zim's arms! DO NOT TOUCH ME LIKE THAT!"_

_"What are you talking about? You were the one clinging onto me! I already had to push you off once already!"_

_"Lies! Zim would never clutch at your filthy back!"_

_"Fine whatever, I'm going back to sleep" Dib made to climb back into the bed but Zim stopped him with a shriek._

_"You will sleep at Zim's feet!"_

_"I'm not a dog Zim" he complained._

_"You will OBEY ME"_

_Dib sighed, too tired to argue, and curled up at the bottom of the bed._

_Dib woke again in the night, unable to breathe. He wheezed, and clawed at his throat, where Zim's legs were wrapped tightly. He gasped and pounded at them with his good arm, until Zim woke up._

_"You trying to strangle me?" Dib gasped._

_This wasn't working._

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS!**

**It's so much fun writing this, especially when I get reviews *hint hint***

**You can also hassle me on: tooot-sweet dot tumblr dot com!**

**Yeaah idk, hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**REVIEW PLEASE!**

**Mia out~**


	6. Chapter 6

**Extra-long 2 in 1 chapter! **

**Warning: this is a very violent chapter…**

The outside of the spittle runner had taken quite a battering. Space suit on and tools in hand, Dib set to work, pounding out dents, re- fixing steel plates, and fusing together any tears in metal and wire. The spittle runner was at a standstill about 10 minutes 3wks away from the last asteroid. He refused to continue the journey until everything running ship shape. He laughed at the pun in his head. This was probably going to take some time.

**VIRAL OUTBREAK LOG; DAY 35**

_Zim and Dib were gathered around the test tubes and microscopes. Fortunately their scuffle hadn't destroyed the most important piece of equipment, with the closest they had come to an antidote inside. Dibs hand still hadn't healed properly, and he was gently flexing his fingers against the elastic. He gaze pensively into the distance when Zim spoke._

_"Pay attention!" He snapped_

_"Sorry" Dib said, and re-adjusted the plate they were looking at. "I was just thinking about how weird this is."_

_"You're weird, earth weirdness."_

_"Like the universe is so huge" Dib said ignoring him "what are the chances that you, an alien from another planet, and me, your arch nemesis would end up working together like this."_

_"This is not important" Zim said irritably, looking back at his notes._

_Dib just grinned. Zim had scribbled 'Dib is an idiot' on his page in Irken. Zim still didn't know that Dib knew how to speak it yet. He was waiting for the perfect time, when he could really rub it in.__  
Despite their mutual hatred, Dib had actually enjoyed the last month, and while Zim was almost intolerable, it was nice to have someone on his side for a change. Then he felt the beginnings of a solution form in his head._

_"Hang on" Dib said suddenly "I think I know the formula for the antidote!_

**11:00 hours**

_"This is definitely going to work." Dib more confidently than he felt._

_"Yes yes so you say, but you better not try to eat Zim!"_

_They'd tried injecting the antidote into the virus, and it seemed to successfully destroy it. All that was left now was a human test subject. They couldn't go out and get one, as they would contract the airborne virus. So they had to do it one at a time, injecting each other with it, and then the antidote to make sure it worked. After some argument, Dib drew the short stick and had to go first._

_"We don't have day Dib pig, give me your arm!"_

_Dib bit his lip and held his arm out reluctantly. Zim snatched it, and strapped it down, but hesitated. He held the needle menacingly. On one hand, if this didn't work, Dib would be rendered a useless zombie like the others, a victory for Zim! But on the other hand if that happened, Dib being a useless zombie didn't exactly sound like fun. He would be alone on a planet full of brain dead humans. More than usual of course. His human had better be ok. He stabbed Dib in the arm._

_Dib yelped and then the symptoms set in. The effect was so sudden it seemed unreal, and shocked Zim. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and his body began convulsing violently. Zim quickly jabbed him with the antidote in his arm, the restraint dug into him as he shook. Dib was still shaking and his face dripped with sweat. Blood began to drip from his nose and for a horrible moment Zim thought it hadn't worked, that Dib was doomed to become an infected and useless sack of bones like the others, but then Dib's eyelids closed, and the shaking slowed a little. When he opened them again, Zim saw his eyes had swivelled back round and pupils slowly dilate to their normal size. He heaved in deep shuddering breaths and slowly calmed down. He coughed, then spat up some blood._

_"Well that was fun" he managed, his voice weak_

_"Stupid earth pig" He felt the tiniest atom of relief rush through him._

_"Your turn Zim"_

**13:00 hours**

_The sealed doors of their quarantine prison slowly hissed open. They had been trapped inside for upwards of a month, and were finally free!_

_They made their way to the elevator in Zim's base, and punched the up button. They stood in silence as they flew up the narrow chute in the earth and emerged from Zim's base, and left equipped with the antidote. Kurt was going down. Just inside Zim's territory, something stirred out the corner of dibs eye. He almost screamed when Gaz came up beside him and punched him on the arm. Thankfully it was his good arm._

"_Gaz!" he gasped, getting ready to run. _

_There was no way he was going to wrestle with a zombified version of his sister. To his surprise she didn't appear to be infected._

"_That took you long enough." She huffed, folding her arms._

"_You're… ok?" dib said uncertainly. _

"_Of course." she shrugged and began to walk toward town. "I've just been waiting out here bored for you guys to make the antidote."_

"_Wait you didn't catch the virus?" dib asked hurrying after her._

_Gaz simply rolled her eyes. Duh._

"_Typical, the dib sister is immune!" Zim said with an air of annoyance._

_The antidote was probably in her DNA the whole time, meaning that they were also in his Dib's. Dib groaned in realisation._

"_Dib, Zim, you two concentrate on getting that antidote airborne, I'm going to take down Kurt."_

"_Wait what? You know it was Kurt?"_

"_I've not been sitting around with my thumbs up my ass. I know he's behind this, and I've analysed his computer software. I have a bug that is going to crash every last one of his units." She kicked a piece of rubbish and sent is skidding down the deserted street._

"_Not a chance you're going alone, we've spent too much time on this to let you take all the glory! Zim made a virus too, you could both work together on this and destroy him. Right Zim?"_

_Zim said nothing. In fact he'd been unusually quiet this whole time._

"_Zim?"_

"_Hmm? What? Yes me and the female can take down the Kurt human." He waved his hand in the air._

"_FINE" Gaz snapped. _

"_Humph."_

_Something was on his mind. He'd gotten so used to being in Dib's presence, so used to his annoying habits and his snores, his stupid remarks, his stupid stupid. The idea of going back to the base after this was all over seemed empty and hostile. But they could never be friends. Poor lonely Zim, stuck on a planet light-years from the armada, on a mission he could almost accept was fake. But this could all go away. The brilliant Zim would still conquer this puny pig infested planet, and then he would show the tallest that he was a worthy invader. He would be welcomed back a hero, maybe even given a prize. It would all be worth it. He would succeed! And when he did, he would take the dib human down._

**14:00 hours**

_They were lucky, and hadn't ran into any infected humans, and so reached the tallest building in the city in a short amount of time. _

"_We have to climb this to release the antidote" dib explained, "Has to be high up,"_

_Gaz narrowed her eyes, thoroughly annoyed at being dragged along to this, when she could be taking down Kurt on her own._

"_Zim will be the FIRST to the top!" Zim sneered extracting his pak legs, and set off, easily scaling the side of the building._

_Dib knew a challenge when he saw one, and began climbing the fire escape as fast as he could. They reached the top, Zim a little ahead of dib, and collapsed on the roof out of breath._

"_Took your time" Gaz said nonchalantly, leaning up against a wall. _

"_How did you-?" dib gasped._

_Gaz simply motioned to the elevator. _

"_Right." Dib got to his feet "Zim the "thing""_

_Zim still lay on the floor panting. _

"_Zim!" and when he didn't respond "Zim?" he kicked him gingerly._

_If I don't fix this planet, maybe we can stay like this forever, just me Dib and his weird sister. But what use was that? He'd never be able to go back to the tallest, never get treated with the respect he deserved, never ever. Anger boiled up inside him. He would cut ties with his Dib as soon as this was over. _

"_Come on Zim!" Dib pulled him roughly to his feet._

"_Fine!" Zim hissed, pulling out the "thing" _

_The "thing" was a special device they'd built, and were too lazy to name, that would shoot the antidote into the sky, and have it expand in the clouds, causing a thunderstorm that would rain down on the infected citizens. Zim was less than enthusiastic about this plan, but it was the best one they had. He'd applied several thick layers of paste, and dib had provided an umbrella and raincoat._

_Dib carefully loaded the antidote into the "thing", and aimed it at the sky. He hesitated. Once he pulled the trigger, and they took down Kurt, this would all be over. Zim however had made up his mind, suddenly getting angry at Dib's hesitance. _

"_Pull the trigger human pig boy!" _

_Dib took a deep breath. There was a bang, and the "thing" shot the antidote into the sky, releasing it into the stratosphere. Almost immediately dark rainclouds began to form, like a time-lapse. It was frightening. Dib rummaged around in his backpack, which was difficult to do with the use of only one hand, and pulled out the umbrella._

"_Here" he said he said holding it out._

_Zim batted it out of his hand harshly. The rejection squeezed at his heart and hurt almost as much as the pain in his left hand when the umbrella hit it. Almost. He supressed a cry of pain and bit his lip, breathing deeply. His eyes watered dangerously. He kicked Zim's legs out from under him, and swung his bag back onto his back. _

"_Come on Gaz" he said storming over to the elevator just as a booming roll of thunder crashed around them. Pathetic fallacy thought dib, and slammed his hand onto the down button, leaving Zim on the roof._

_That was weird Gaz observed. They always fought, but this time their petty squabble seemed less of a game, and a little more intense. Like it had some sort of underlying meaning. Dib seemed more put out than usual. _

**17:00 hours**

_The outside of Kurt's base was the entrance to a small bookshop. The rain was coming down heavily now, and a dripping Zim was beginning to show the first signs of pain. An occasional eye twitch, a quick sucking of air through teeth. It had been three hours and he still refused the umbrella and raincoat dib had repeatedly offered him. Fine then. They entered the small building, and made their way toward the back. The door to the back room was locked with an electronic keypad. Zim stepped up and shoved Dib out of the way without saying a word, and inserted the tip of one of his pak legs. It opened up into a small probe that fit into the side. Zim's body went rigid, and the numbers on the lock whirred past until the first number stuck. 9. The numbers behind it whirred on, until a sequence formed. 9. 4. 2. 8. _

_Dib supressed a smirk. 942 were the numbers Gaz used to have as her phone password. They spelled out Gaz with a little imagination. _

_Zim relaxed a little as there was a soft beeping, and the door hissed. He retracted his pak leg, and pulled the door open. Dib brushed past him coldly. No doubt by now Kurt's alarm system had been triggered, eliminating the element of surprise._

"_Deactivated the alarms" Gaz said as if she'd read his mind, slipping her phone into her pocket. _

_They made their way down the stairs into the basement. There was another tightly locked door with a keypad lock. Dib doubted he'd use the same password twice, but it was worth a try. . A quick beeping, and the door opened._

"_I can't believe this guy" Dib said to himself. Both Zim and Gaz were being too quiet. It was making him uncomfortable. They entered the door, and were faced with yet more steps, leading down to a broad, dimly lit room. Gaz slunk into the shadows. In front of an impressive computer and various panels, was a swivel chair. _

"_Kurt Vlog!" Dib said from behind their enemy, "Its game over for you!"_

_The chair swivelled round instantly. _

"_Argh!" Kurt screamed standing abruptly "I spilled my cereal!" he wiped at his trousers in vain. _

_Kurt was a man in his early twenties, jet black hair was pushed off his face. He had deep brown eyes high cheekbones and sallow skin. He was actually quite attractive, and would have looked threatening if it weren't for the steadily spreading wet patch and Cocofangs cereal dripping from his shirt._

"_God damn it! What do you want dib?" _

"_Um..." dib was taken aback. He didn't seem surprised that he was there at all, more slightly annoyed._

"_Prepare to die!" Zim screamed and attacked him._

_Kurt grinned and it was on. He whipped out a laser pistol from a nearby shelf, and began to fire upon Zim. He got closer and ripped at his skin with his pak legs. Kurt screamed and dropped the gun, rolling out of the way of Zim's razor sharp weapons. Zim lowered himself to the ground and pulled Kurt up by the front of his shirt with his pak legs. _

"_Despicable" he spat, throwing him back to the ground. Kurt got to his feet and launched a punch at Zim's face. He ducked to the side, giving Kurt the perfect opening to jab Zim's pak with an electric prod that he'd pulled out of nowhere. Dib dove at him, just as Zim's pak short circuited, the small Irken lay unconscious, strewn across the floor, his pak legs still out, motionless. His system wouldn't reboot for another 5 minutes. Dibs gut turned, as he threw himself on top of Kurt, tackling him to the floor. He grabbed his hair and smacked his head into the floor. Kurt yelped and pushed dib off. _

_Dibs mind roared as he got to his feet. Nobody fought Zim like that, nobody. If anyone was going to take the alien down it was going to be him, even if it was the last thing he did. It was a mutual feeling._

_He ran at Kurt and punched his face. He ducked the next blow and ran at Dib, pushing him against a wall and punching him repeatedly in the face. Dib screamed. Kurt was holding tightly to his injured arm. Dib kicked him, stomping on his toes to get him away. Kurt punched him in the stomach, winding him. Dib doubled over gasping for breath. _

"_Look at me" Kurt demanded, pulling him up by the hair. Dib, gritted his teeth, and with every inch of force he had left, head-butted Kurt in the face. He staggered back and his feet kicked the laser gun. He picked it up and aimed it at dib. _

"_Now what?" dib spat "we've already released the antidote, you've already lost."_

"_Wait really? That was fast, I would have thought it would have taken you at least another month." _

"_What?" dib asked confused._

"_Well you and the green kid are such good chums, I knew you'd figure it out eventually." Kurt grinned and shot a shelf of books behind dib. They collapsed on top of him and he fell with a scream. Kurt neared him._

"_It was all just a bit of fun you see." He was still holding the gun, casually aimed at dib "Actually it was your sis-"_

_Kurt was ripped off his feet and sent skidding across the floor._

"_STAY AWAY FROM ZIMS HUMAN!" Zim screamed, appearing and standing firmly in front of dib. _

_Before anything else could be said or done, there was a loud wailing of sirens and flashing lights, which abruptly cut out. _

"_system failure" __a loud mechanical voice boomed from the computer, and everything went quiet, whirring to a halt. Neither Zim, nor Kurt, who'd gotten to his feet, breathed a word. The only noise in the room was the quiet whimpering of dib, as Zim stood protectively over him. And then there was the sound of footsteps coming out of the shadows._

"_Kurt," Gaz whined softly "you're in a lot of trouble." Kurt visibly paled._

"_To think" she continued, emerging "that you'd go and have all this fun, and leave poor old me out in the maelstrom?"_

_Gaz sauntered up to Kurt, and stroked his cheek seductively. _

"_Do you know" she almost whispered "how long it's been" Kurt's Adams apple bobbed. Gaz reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. "Since I've had a pizza?" she snarled. Suddenly pulling his dark brown locks._

"_Gaz!" he whimpered "I thought you left for Europe!" _

"_Well you thought wrong!" she said pushing him back into the swivel chair and straddled him. _

_While it was true that Gaz had been meant to leave for Europe, she'd had her plans cancelled last minute, and had ended up staying. Whatever their weird Bonnie and Clyde relationship was, she was clearly very pissed off at being kept out of the loop._

"_I told you not to do it didn't I?" she hissed in his ear. _

"_You said it would be funny!" he gasped._

"_It's not funny if I'm in another country, and definitely not if I'm locked out! Besides, I said it as a joke you idiot! You didn't have to take it this far." _

"_I'm sorry!" said, his voice strangled. _

"_I was out there for almost 6 weeks you ass! I couldn't even call you because of this stupid radiation proof bunker" she snarled "your password was sweet though. Gaz forever? You're hopeless. Call me when you're ready to behave." She brought her face close to his, her lips parted slightly and- she got up and flipped the chair over, Kurt and all and stormed out, leaving Kurt a blubbering mess with a hard on. Well it looked like she had that under control._

**Virus terminated; day 1**

_Dib woke in his bed. He didn't recall how he'd gotten there. The last thing he remembered was a really weird interaction between Kurt and his sister, and cold steel wrapping around his body. Then he'd lost consciousness. He winced and climbed out of bed, and wearily went down into the kitchen. Gaz was leaning against the counter eating a pizza. _

"_How's your arm?" she asked._

_He looked down. It was swollen and bruised, and it hurt with a deep throbbing pain. _

"_It'll be fine." He said, "Everything back to normal?" he asked_

"_Yep" Gaz said pulling another slice of pizza from the box. _

"_How did I get home?"_

"_Zim carried you. It was raining a lot too, I don't know how he managed. He was almost as bad as you were when he turned up at the door."_

"_Really?" funny things were happening to Dib's insides that was not related to the pain._

"_Yep. Oh and by the way Dib?"_

"_Mhm?" he said rummaging in the drawer for some painkillers._

"_What happened in Kurt's base didn't happen. Understand?" her tone was dead serious._

"_You mean all that weird end of the world romance stuff?" Gaz threw a spoon at his head. He grinned._

"_As curious as I am Gaz, I am in a lot of pain right now."_

"_Dib I'm serious" _

"_Never happened." He said and left the kitchen for some TV and bed._

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM OR ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS**

**Hey guys! Sorry I took so long on this one, its longer though so?…. **

**Hurray they've finally defeated the cereal spilling Kurt Vlog! I hope it wasn't too anti climatic, I was really put off writing it because I didn't want to disappoint… if I've left any lose ends in this arc, just let me know and I'll write them into the next chapter.**

**Also I just realised I had the wrong url up! I changed it, its: tooot-sweet dot tumblr dot com (with 3 o's…. woopsie)**

**Again I know nothing about science or science related matters, but hey…**

**I know they are out of character, so fight me!**

**Idk man tell me all your thoughts!**

**If you like it, please leave a review, they really encourage me to write more!**

**Review review!**

**Mia out~**


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter has some mild violence and stuff**

_Day 1 of the rest of their lives_

_**Mauerbauertraurigkeit**__: The inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends who you really like._

_In the direct aftermath of their fight with Kurt, Dib found himself wondering if things would ever go back to the way they were. Gaz had gone back to Kurt's base with the police. She said she was done playing with idiots. Dib was slightly irritated that Gaz was nominated for an award despite his and Zim's hand in everything, but he supposed she deserved it for saving their asses. _

_But things were different, especially between himself and Zim, who was being very cold and distant since their victory. Not that they'd been particularly close before, but they'd been civil, and besides, before this at least they'd seen each other, and been rapt in the hatred they revelled in when they fought, which was more than they had now. Now, Dib never saw Zim, and if he was lucky enough to bump into him when out of the house, he would avoid Dib with an air of indifference that made his stomach turn. There were no more fights, no more scheming, no more plans of world domination, just silence. It was driving Dib mad, and tonight was the night he was going to do something about it._

_Obviously Zim was hesitant to fight with him because during their time in quarantine he'd warmed up to him, Dib reasoned. Though Dib hated to admit it, he'd grown accustomed to sharing a close proximity with the little green alien, and had begun to enjoy his presence. Now that he was gone however, life seemed a little duller than usual, and though Wild horses wouldn't drag it out of him, Dib missed him. He slipped on his jacket, grabbed his keys from beside his laptop, and made his way downstairs._

_The walk to Zim's was short and brisk, the cold night air filling Dib's lungs. Street lamps casting menacing shadows that danced over the frosty brick buildings, making them sparkle. Dibs mind raced his heart, each competing to be the fastest. He had no idea what he was going to say. How would he even begin to bring up a truce, a comradery, an alliance, without swallowing his pride and admitting how he felt? His only reassurance was his conviction that Zim would want the same. It was nice to have someone on your side, Zim must think so too? After all hed been alone for so long, he must get lonely too. _

_Before he knew it, his foot nudged against the first defence gnome in Zim's garden. Most of the gnomes had broken over the years. Zim had repaired them time and time again, before finally giving up and upgrading his defences. A loud screeching noise filled the night, and the front of Zim's base erupted in lasers that aimed straight at dibs head. The loud mechanic voice of Zim's computer boomed out:_

_**"Identify yourself"**_

_Dib gulped, hoping he was still registered as an ally in Zim's computer. If not? Well…_

_"Dib Membrane" he said._

_**"Intruder detected, prepare for annihilation"**_

_Dib panicked, had no way to counteract the computers attack. This was supposed to be a peaceful mission so he'd brought no weapons with him. It was too far for him to run to the edge of the garden, the lasers would get him by then. No, he only had one option._

_"ZIM!" He yelled_

_Zim was already opening the door when he heard Dib shout. His insides twisted as he threw the door open. He couldn't let his computer destroy his Dib._

_"Computer, hold your fire!" Zim said, appearing at the door, looking rather flustered._

_Zim tried to make his manner and voice as hostile as possible. He had to cut ties with the human. Dib could see he was stressed, his antennae lay flat along his scalp. Dib swallowed._

_"Zim."_

_"What do you want earth pig?" He demanded._

_"Gaz told me you carried me home" he blurted out. "Thanks"__  
Zim folded his arms and said nothing._

_"Right." Dib continued "I have a proposition."_

"_And what do you propose?"_

_"I propose a permanent alliance between us. No more dirty-fighting, no more back stabbing, just- friends. We make a great team and you know it."_

_"Never" Zim spat "I will NEVER BETRAY MY TALLEST!"_

_"Zim, the mission they have you on is fake! It's a fake fake- FAKE!" Dib sputtered "you don't need to follow their orders anymore! They're not coming and if you'd just stop trying to take over the planet we could, I don't know, get somewhere!"_

_Zim hissed quietly, and suddenly the atmosphere was hostile. You could cut it with a knife. And time seemed to slow for a minute too thick like treacle and slow moving. It seemed like a whisper of leaves rustling on the pavement, a short intake of breath and the time it took a cicada to sing one note of his eternal song for it to happen, and suddenly the world spun back into motion. Zim had unsheathed his pak legs and had flung dib round, and pinned him to the wall._

"_Listen carefully dib" he snarled, his voice terrifyingly steady and calm, every last ounce of his insane speech inflictions had melted away to reveal a steely voice that made Dib fear him like never before._

"_You will not come near Zim, you will not come near Zim's base, and you will not interfere. We are not friends."_

_And that was it. Those four words somehow hurt dib more than the metal that was digging into his flesh. He felt his stomach drop out. Why had he wanted to be friends with Zim anyway? Why was he so surprised by this outcome? Why? Why did it hurt? Why did he care? He hated zim. He hated him. He hated hated HATED- and the words found their way out._

"_I hate you Zim. I hate you! I hate YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATEYOU IHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATE YOU ZIM! I HATE YOU!"_

_Dibs breath caught in his throat, pure rage bubbling just beneath the surface. And suddenly Zim was close, he was so close._

"_Listen to me human," he hissed into dibs cheek "you are a worthless pig. Zim hates you more than you could ever hate Zim, and I will kill you."_

_Dibs heart hammered against his ribs, their close proximity making him light headed. _

_But then the moment was gone as Zim pulled back a little and looked at Dib whose eyes were hard, his expression blank._

"_Let go of me Zim, I have more important things to do." He said in a moment of stubbornness and shrugged his shoulders, the pak legs tearing through skin, before finally releasing him._

_Dib made sure he was out of sight before punching a brick wall so hard his knuckles split, blood trickling between his fingers._

_Zim closed the door behind him and leaned against it. His insides were turning unpleasantly, and he was finding it difficult to breathe. It didn't matter. He would be ok. Who needed the human anyway? His gaze swept across the room, and lingered momentarily on the lifeless shape of Gir. The little robot had broken down years ago, and Zim, though he worked tirelessly for months on end, had to finally admit that he could not fix him. He'd sent off for parts that had never come, and was left with the lifeless carcass of steel and wires that was his only company on this hostile cattle infested planet. The gravity of how truly alone he was now that he had cut dib out, finally hit him. His antennae twitched uncontrollably in the closest an Irken could physically come to crying._

Ooooooooo/\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ooooooooooooooO

Finally, finally, finally! After almost 3 months in this godforsaken spittle runner, left with nothing but his thoughts, finally dib came into sight of the massive. He had gone over his plan a thousand times on the ride over; get in, get information, and get out. It was that simple. He doubted Zim would be on the massive, not if he was dead anyway. And if he was alive? Surely he must be in some prison somewhere? He would never just leave like this.

Even though he had been distant before he left, if he was doing well, he would have found some way to gloat? Right? But he hadn't heard a peep from him in over a year.

He had to find out where he was. 

Dib grabbed the idm and turned it on. Immediately he was cloaked in light, the hologram completely disguising him as an Irken invader. Pale green skin, deep blue bug eyes, two long antennae atop his head; he was a changed man. Dib knew enough about the Irken race from observing Zim for so long, and he was confident that he would be able to pull this off.

He'd been able to pull up a map of the massive from the computers database, and now had a good idea of how to get to the Massive's archives. He'd spent all week practicing Irken mannerisms and using the holographic disguise, which took quite some concentration. With his heart pounding in his chest, and a mixed feeling of excitement and dread, dib prepared to put phase 1 of his plan into action.

Ooooooooo/\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ooooooooooooooO

_Zim's last day on earth:_

_Maybe two months had passed since Zim and Dib had last spoken, and it was really starting to take its toll on dib. There hadn't been anymore late nights fighting horrendous henchmen, no more end of the world battles, not even the faintest glimpse of a plan for world domination. Nothing, not a word from Zim. Maybe he had imagined him all along, maybe- but no. he was covered in countless scars obtained from their battles, there was no way he could Imagine all of those. No, Zim was just lying low, maybe he had something bigger planned._

_That morning, Dib was lying on his stomach, flipping through his emails when his phone buzzed. He almost ignored it, he barely ever got texts, and just assumed it was his network provider. Better check just in case. _

_From: actual alien_

_My base 5 minutes._

_Almost before he knew what he was doing, he was on his feet. He frantically looked around his room for his coat, or something, anything, what should he bring? Weapons? No… His head was buzzing with a hundred questions. What was Zim up to? Was this some sort of trap? Did he have some sort of world dominance plan that required Dib to be distracted? Or had he reconsidered Dib's offer? Maybe he did want to be friends after all? The very idea made his head rush, and his heart beat a little faster at the thought. He grabbed a jacket off the chair and rushed out the door. He took the stairs two at a time, the anticipation was killing him. He didn't say a word to Gaz, who was sketching in her notebook on the floor, and slammed the door behind him._

_The walk to Zim's base was more of a run, and yet it had never seemed longer. He had no idea why he felt so frantic, he just knew he had to find out how Zim was. He skidded on the grass outside Zim's base, and had no problem getting to the door as Zim had apparently disabled his defences. He tried the handle, but the door was locked. _

"_Zim!" he said breathlessly, banging on the door "it's me, let me in."_

_There was the sound of shuffling behind the door, and then it unlocked and swung open. Zim looked terrible. Dib was suddenly shot back to when they were kids, and dib had abandoned chasing Zim for "real science". It had been the longest that dib had left him alone for. Apart from now. He was thinner than usual, and paler too. His skin was a washed out whitish green colour, his antennae lay flat on his head, and he moved jerkily, but perhaps the most unnerving thing about Zim was his eyes. There was no light, no burning fire of passion in them._

"_Zim" he breathed._

_Zim grabbed him and pulled him inside, slamming the door behind them. They were thrown into a murky gloom. When dibs night vision had finally adjusted, and the floaters had gone from his eyes, he saw the room. It was a mess. Broken dishes lay strewn around the room, the couch was all but shredded and empty cartons and boxes of floor had been thrown into various corners._

"_Zim has some news for you earth boy," he said, his voice fainter than usual._

_Dib looked up from the room and waited curiously, and though he probably wouldn't admit it, he was concerned. _

"_My tallest have requested that I return to the armada."_

_Dib was stunned. Zim leave earth? There was a funny feeling in his chest. This was good news! Wasn't it?_

"_What for? They're not coming here are they? Will you come back?" he said that last part with the faintest traces of hope in his voice._

"_probably to reward me for my valiant efforts against the pigs of this planet." Zims voice betrayed him. Dib could tell he didn't believe the words coming out of his own mouth. _

"_W- Are you coming back?" _

"_Not to worry, Zim will be returning very soon to ensure your pathetic planets destruction" again, his voice held no conviction. _

_Dib was stuck for words, he didn't really know what to say to him. He settled for:_

"_So, why did you call me out here?"_

"_For earth goodbyes."_

_He promptly grabbed Dib by his shirt and pulled him close. he gasped in surprise to find the alien nuzzled into his chest, his arms playing with the neck of his t-shirt. _

"_zim what the fuck" he mumbled half-heartedly, stroking his hand down the back of Zim's head, caught up un the moment. _

_He felt numb, his heart was beating too fast, and all he could think about was how warm Zim was, the feel of flesh on flesh as Zim slowly stepped up on his tiptoes, and breathed into dibs neck;_

"_Don't you dare forget me dib." _

_And with that he pulled down the collar of dibs t-shirt and sunk his teeth deeply into the flesh on dibs shoulder. He cried out in pain, but didn't try to shake him off. He held Zim as he sunk his teeth deeper and deeper, until blood began to pool around his teeth and he finally let go._

"_Fuck Zim," he whimpered, "what was that for?"_

"_So you won't forget about Zim, you're mine earth boy. I left my mark on you."_

_Dib sucked in a shuddering gulp of air, trying to calm the feeling in his chest. _

"_You better not forget me either space boy." His voice was strained from the pain._

_He grabbed Zim by the shoulder and pulled him closer and to their knees. Out of the corner of his eye, dib spotted an empty glass that Zim had left where is fell. He picked up the biggest shard and brought it close to the Irken._

"_You dare mark the skin of Zim?" he demanded, but gently almost as if it __**was**__ a dare. _

_When Dib carefully pulled down the neck of his uniform, he didn't protest. And in the same place Zim had bitten him, he marked his tiny enemy, drawing a crude circle with a plus inside. Zim would have killed him had he known that this was the symbol for earth, but instead he gritted his teeth and allowed dib to make the mark. _

"_Filthy disgusting human," Zim spat as his pinkish blood trickled slowly down his shoulder and soaked into his uniform._

"_nasty horrible space jerk" dib retorted._

_They sat there for a little while in silence, until Zim finally demanded that he leave. _

"_You're coming back right?"_

"_yes yes of course," he said wearily. He hesitated. "Goodbye dib."_

_The door closed behind him as he left, Zim's last words to him made him suspect that maybe he was lying to him. _

_Their farewell seemed like a dream, the scar on his shoulder was the only thing that confirmed the events of that morning. It really only became a reality for Dib when he heard the distant sound of the Voot Cruiser firing up its engines. He ran to his window just in time to see the small space craft fire up into the sky and through the atmosphere. He watched it until it disappeared into the burnt orange of the sunset._

Ooooooooo/\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ooooooooooooooO

Boarding the massive had been relatively simple. As dib had predicted, the spittle runner had no problem, gaining access due to its Irken make and design, it was finding the archives that proved to be most difficult.

The map of the massive he'd gotten from the computer, as it turned out, was a little outdated. Some basic structural changes had taken place within the Massive's walls, and proved a little more difficult to navigate than he had previously thought. It would have been easy to blend in and remain unnoticed, if it hadn't been for his height. Hundreds of Irkens milled around him, each hurrying on, busy in their own tasks. Every now and again they would turn and look at him, their necks craning over the crowd to see him better. They were worried he was here to inspect them, or perhaps to give them orders, whatever the cased, they gave him a very wide berth. Better safe than sorry. He was currently walking down the 8th hallway he'd gotten lost in, and had almost been able to recognise where he was from the maps, when a voice behind him stopped him in his tracks.

"Halt!"

**Disclaimer: I don't own invader zim or any of its characters.**

**Hi again! So much for my dream of a regularly updated fanfic am I right?! Im not going to go into it, but ive been super busy for aages, and really only have some free time now. I wanted to make this chapter a bit longer so you would have something to make up for the huge gap in my writing, so here!**

**I found it really difficult to write this chapter (bit of the awl writers block), so be gentle! **

**Please, if you like this, let me know! **

**Review review!**

**Luv u all**

**Mia out~**


	8. Chapter 8

"Halt!"

Dib froze. Shit. He turned to face the voice that addressed him, and saluted. An Irken approached him. He was roughly the same height as dib, and his eyes shone blue, although he looked almost as uncertain as dib felt.

"Tik invader 33589" he returned dibs salute and waited for his response.

"Bid invader 23986," he recited.

Luckily he had forged himself a fake identity, if it was a good one, it would work. Tik swallowed the lie and proceeded.

"I am currently monitoring this level, where are you supposed to be?"

"My apologies" replied dib "I am a new recruit. I'm supposed to be on level 9"

Tik noticeably relaxed.

"Thank Irk, I'm new too. It's so easy to get lost in here."

"Yeah I know," thankgodthankgodthankgodthankgod "do you know how to get to level 9?"

"The archives?"

"Yes."

"I thought that Lod was on duty there?"

"Actually," dib swallowed and took a gamble "she...was reassigned."

Tik nodded.

"The quickest way back up to the archives is through the 13th section."

Dib listened intently as Tik explained the directions, anxious to get up there and out of the massive as soon as possible. He smiled and thanked him when he said goodbye, and hurried off in the direction he was pointed in. there was something odd about him, Tik later decided. It was either his height or his mannerisms… Or maybe it was his accent.

/oooooooooooo/

When dib arrived at last at the archives, he was exhausted. He wanted to lean against a wall to rest, but he knew if he showed any sign of weakness, he would immediately give himself away. He approached an Irken who was roughly the same size as him, and stopped. She was slender and had bright yellow eyes.

"Invader Lod" he saluted "Bid invader 23986, here to repair the mainframe."

Her eyes narrowed

"I haven't been informed of this," her voice was full of suspicion.

"Of course not, how could you, the mainframes down."

"No it isn't, I was updated just 10 minutes ago."

"And since then it has died. Look do you want to sit around all day or let me do my job?"

He knew the only way to make this work was to bluff confidence. Irkens respected confidence.

Reluctantly she nodded, unlocked the panel on the wall, and pushed him towards it.

"You have ten minutes,"

"I'll be done in five"

Dib wasn't at all sure that he would be done in five, but thought it better to keep her appeased. She wasn't as gullible as her peer. Besides, he needed to work fast, according to the spittle runner's computer, Irkens received a general update from the mainframe of the massive every twenty minutes, and from what Lod just told him, he only had ten minutes anyway. He opened his makeshift pak, and removed a small device that looked like the one Zim used to open the door to Kurt's base, and pushed it into the electronic interface which protruded from the wall. "_Please god"_ he thought to himself _"please let this work" _and he let it run the numbers. Minutes passed slowly. He was sweating beneath his disguise, and he could feel the eyes of Lod on the back of his head.

_SYSTEM ACESS _appeared on the screen and he breathed a sigh of relief. Now all he had to do was download every file relating to Zim, and maybe set up a remote access point to the archives. Also not a bad idea to key himself and his ID into the system to strengthen his disguise in case anyone checked. He was sure the minute he left the archive that Lod would.

_DOWNLOADING ZIM ARCHIVES EST TIME: 02:35 MIN_

Dib squeezed his hands into fists, his heart thumped in his chest. This was going to take too long! He began punching at keys to set up the fake ID, and remote access point.

_DOWNLOADING ZIM ARCHIVES EST TIME: 01:30 MIN_

Ok, fake id complete.

"You're taking too long" Lod said accusingly.

"Almost done"

_DOWNLOADING ZIM ARCHIVES EST TIME: 00:59 MIN_

Remote access point set!

"Where did you say you were from again?"

"I didn't."

"Your accent is very strange"

"Yeah I know" _oh no is it that obvious I'm not from irk?_

"Where do you have to be from to get an accent like that?"

"Fot 315 alpha." _Earth_.

This seemed to satisfy her.

_DOWNLOAD ZIM COMPLETE._

"Done!" he ripped the device out of the archive and it zipped back into the pak on his back. He saluted her.

"Alright."

She eyed him as he walked down the hallway, trying to look as normal as possible. The minute he turned the corner, he checked there was no one in sight, and then leaned against the wall breathing heavily. After about 5 seconds he was standing straight, determination in his eyes. He bee-lined down the corridor at a faster pace.

/000/

He made it to the hangar in less than twenty minutes. In no time he was in the spittle runner, and requesting take-off.

"Ground control; please state your name and rank for clearance"

Dib suppressed the urge to say major tom, and dutifully recited his fake name and waited.

"Clearance granted, please exit the hangar on the right hand side at 2wk-"

Ground control mumbled out instructions, but all dib could think about was getting out, and looking through Zim's file.

When he had finally made it past the hangar doors and a good distance from the massive, he turned off his disguise and pulled the fake pak off of his back. His hands shook as he took the small device, and inserted it into the computer. He was nervous. His palms were sweaty, and he rubbed them on his jeans. His heart was beating too fast, and he felt sick. It was the moment of truth. He would finally find out what happened to Zim, but he wasn't sure if he was ready. What if Zim really was dead? He had always told himself that this was only a mission for closure, that once he'd found out if the he was alive or dead it wouldn't matter anymore, he'd be ok with it either way, but it was all lies. Lies he been telling himself to make himself feel better. If something had actually happened to the little green menace he didn't know what he'd do. His chest felt tight as he scrolled through the files. He opened one. No, not that one. He opened another.

It took him a while to get to the one that held the information of Zim's current condition and whereabouts, but when he did he breathed a sigh of relief.

_Invader Zim _

_Status: Defective, Living._

But his relief was short lived.

_Holding: Irken Central Laboratories._

_Condition: removed pak, preserved body, life support._

His breath caught in his throat. Oh no oh no oh no. he was alive that was good news right? His heart hammered in his chest.

Almost without thinking he set a direct course for irk, and set off at 5wk.

/0/

The massive was only three weeks from irk, but those were the longest weeks of his life. He tried to keep himself occupied to keep his mind off Zim, but it kept wandering back. A few times he had to resist the urge to read through some of Zim's more personal files, but he resisted, it didn't seem right for him to snoop. Eventually he decided that he would at least read the file about Zim's current condition and holding. He needed as much information as he could to be able to break him out. What he found chilled him to the bone.

It seemed that Zim was being experimented on in this facility. It was ironic, hadn't that been the very thing dib had wanted for so long? His stomach twisted. How dare they.

Apparently they were trying to extract information from him, somehow? They didn't seem sure where the information was, whether it was in his brain or in his pak. Multiple tests were being run to figure out which one it was. There were a lot of difficult Irken words the dib had never come across before, and he didn't understand a lot of what he read, but it seemed the only way he was going to save Zim, was if he disguised himself as an Irken scientist. He could key himself into the schedule as a newbie to study him, and hopefully get him out.

/000000/

Lod felt there was something wrong. That technician, Bid or whatever, had seemed very odd. In fact, he hadn't seemed Irken at all. His accent was weird, his composure was off, and his mannerisms were odd too. She was going to look him up.

/0000/

Dib spent the next few weeks studying Irken biology and science. That was easy, he was super smart after all, but he also had to work harder on his Irken and accent too. He'd gotten lucky last time, but he wasn't going to risk it again. He had to be perfect.

By the time dib reached irk, he was exhausted from late nighters and cram studying. He was fairly confident that he would pass a lot better this time and that gave him hope. When the giant planet finally came into sight, his jaw dropped in awe. It was several times larger than irk, and had 4 moons, one of them almost as big as mars. Below was a cluster of buildings, a network of lights and spacecrafts. For the first time, he felt uncertain that he would fail, and end up like Zim in a test tube. He gulped and flew into orbit.

**DISCLAIMER: DON'T OWN INVADER ZIM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS **

**Hi! Ok I know this chapters a bit short, but the break was in a good place, and I didn't want to leave you too long with the cliff-hanger at the end of the last chapter! I'm hoping to have another one up soon, but no promises… the next chapter will have Zim in it! Yaay!**

**If you liked it, REVIEW! It really encourages me to write more, and sooner when I know people are enjoying it ****J**

*** shia labeouf voice* Just do it!**

**mia out~**


	9. Chapter 9

Dib donned his disguise and Landed a little way from the centre of the throbbing city in a small hangar run by a chubby Irken named Pat, who took the credit transfer (which Dib had added to his profile via the mainframe) silently, and commented on neither his accent nor his height. He had seen a lot of strange folk come through his hangar, and at the end of the day it was much better not to ask. He did however perk an antennae in curiosity when Dib asked where the ICL (Irken central laboratories) were. Why would anyone want to go there? He shuddered and gave him the directions.

The walk to the ICL was long, and Dib found himself going the wrong way more than once, only to have to stop and ask for directions again and again. The streets were bustling, but not just with Irkens (though there were a multitude of them, all shapes sizes and colours) but also Vortians and Meekrobs, and a lot of other species Dib couldn't identify. It was overwhelming. It was too warm, too busy, and the different noises and smells or the city cut into him.

After an age of walking, Dib finally found himself at the front steps of the ICL. It towered above him, a large building with no Windows, and only one door of tinted bulletproof glass. He took a deep breath and did a mental check. Disguise? Check. Fake ID? Check. Fake Medical and scientific licence? Check. Concise knowledge of Irken medicine and science? Check. Courage? He gulped. There were butterflies in his stomach as he walked up those steps, each footfall the knelling of a death bell. He felt a strange mixture of excitement and fear. Excitement because he would finally, after months of waiting, finally find his Irken. Fear at the state he might find him in. He pushed open the door and walked inside.

/00000\\\\\\\\\\\

Lod stared at the mainframe. It had been a few weeks before her request to access the mainframe had been approved, but at long last she'd been given access. Something was up. It would probably take a bit of digging, but there was definitely something wrong with this Bid's profile.

She began to skim through the pages of his files to find something that proved her right.

It wouldn't take her very long.

/0\\\\\\\\\

"Professor Kip, your new scientist for subject 3350z has arrived." The desk Secretary said drearily into the intercom.

There was a brief silence and then a gruff voice responded;

"Send them down".

"That elevator over there" the Secretary gestured to Dib, flicking his wrist "hit minus two, its lab -201"

Dib thanked him, and headed across the sterile white room toward the elevator.

Irken elevators worked much more smoothly than Earth elevators. He barely even felt himself start moving before the doors opened into a corridor. It was the first door on the right. He opened it and was immediately hit by a strong smell of chemicals. If it were even possible, Dib would swear this room was whiter than the last.

An Irken with a long head and purple eyes approached him.

"I'm prof. Kip, you must be our new scientist" he said, his hands busy cleaning a vial.

Dib saluted and introduced himself.

"Very good, I'm sure you want the tour"

"Yes sir"

Dib struggled with the rising anxiety in his chest as Kip showed him around the small room at the front of the lab. There were a few scientists littered around, analysing chemicals, but they paid them no notice. He was reminded of the time he and Zim had worked together in Zim's base for an antidote. His chest tightened. He was shown the various chemicals and equipment used in this laboratory, but the whole while his eyes kept wandering to the door at the back. Zim must be in there. He certainly wasn't out here. He tried to pay attention but he was nervously anticipating the moment he would see Zim. He hoped that he would be prepared for it.

"Alright you got all that? Time to see the test subjects." Kip finally declared.

Dib followed him to the small door at the back of the room. This was it. Time seemed to slow as Kip lifted his hand to the door, and pushed. The door was a glacier sliding slowly across the floor. The room was bright. Scientists were gathered around a large glass cylinder in the middle of the room.

And there he was. Floating in a gel like substance. He was naked, far too skinny, and a shade of pale green Dib had never seen on him before. His antennae lay flat on his head, his eyes closed. A thin wire extended from his Back where his pak should have been, to the floor. On a pedestal in front of the giant test tube was his pak it was open wide, dozens of metal instruments were inserted into it. Dib felt faint, his blood rushed from his face. It's not meant to be like this. Seeing Zim so weak, so vulnerable, so exposed, it wasn't right. Though he knew the answer, he couldn't help but whisper;

"Is he dead?"

"Nope" Kip answered lightly "he's preserved in the gel. You're taking this quite well, most newbies get sick."

Dib nodded. He actually thought he might.

/0\\\\\\\\\

Dib knew there was no time to waste, and while he was given introductory tasks to work on, he formulated a plan. It wouldn't be easy, but he was going to get Zim out tonight.

While gathered round Zim's container during a short break, the jokes began.

"Not so almighty now are we Zim" one scientist sneered, stuffing his face with food.

"Hah the only thing he could conquer is a spoon" another cackled triumphantly.

"The great destroyer! Look at him now"

Dib joined in feebly. Best not look too out of place. But inside he was boiling. How dare they! Sure he'd teased Zim thousands of times in a similar manner, but hearing these scientists do it made him livid. It was wrong! Zim was being humiliated! Only he was allowed to do that!

/0\\\\\\\\\

"My tallest! My tallest!"

"Yes yes what" red snapped looking up from the control panel of the massive. A mid-sized Irken stood in the centre of the room. She was panting slightly.

"Were you granted an audience with us?" purple asked "I don't think so"

"No my tallest" Lod bowed deeply "it's a matter of great importance! I think someone's going to try to free Zim"

"Zim?" Red laughed. "Why would anyone want to rescue Zim?"

"wait," purple cut in "we can't risk it, what if some idiot was actually missing enough to do that?"

"You're right. Speak soldier."

"Thank you my tallest." Lod saluted.  
She briefly explained how Dib had accessed the mainframe, how he had seemed odd and out of place. She explained that she had decided to check up on him, and found that his archive only went back as far as two years. When she checked his search history she found Zim.

The tallest were clearly agitated at this news.

"How do you know he plans to free him?"

"I don't, it's a suspicion. But He didn't look at Zim's public profile, the download history shows he downloaded Zim's entire archive."

"Oh no this is bad"

"We need to double, no triple the security at the ICL!"

"Get on the speaker to the head of the Irken law enforcement!"

"Wait" red said suddenly "doesn't she look like?"

"Actually" purple turned to the screen behind him and pulled up an image.

Lod suddenly felt very uneasy. Was she in trouble? What was going on?

"It's almost a complete match! When were you born invader? Give us your ID"

"Lod invader 78654" she said uncertainly.

"Her birth date and place check out!"

"She is!" Red gasped excitedly "she's another key!"

"Guards seize her!" purple ordered.

"Wait what? My tallest! What have I done?"

The guards grabbed her arms and began to drag her toward the exit.

"My tallest? Forgive me! What have I done? I only meant to help!"

The doors to the cockpit slammed shut behind them. There was some muffled shouting, as she was dragged down the hall, and then silence.

"Goody" purple said rubbing his palms together. "Four down, three to go!"

"Get on the horn to Irken security if you want it to stay four" red said glaring at the door Lod had just been dragged through.

/0\\\\\\\\\

It was late when Dib crept back into the ICL. He had left the spittle runner round the back down a small discreet alley. As an afterthought, he'd brought the remote controls for the little ship. He'd also brought a hand gun. Just in case. It was easy to get back in after closing hours, being able to remotely manipulate the mainframe had its perks. He hit the button to floor -2, and slid gently into the silent depths of the laboratories.

Lab -201 looked different in the dark. It was much more sinister. Every corner seemed to hold a horrifying shadow. His footsteps echoed as he made his way through the cold dark isles of chemicals and vials. There was a whisper, a faint breath of air. He froze. He could hear nothing except his own heartbeat hammering furiously in his ears. He must have imagined it. He proceeded more cautiously this time, making absolute certain he was as quiet as possible. There it was again, the faintest of sighs. Someone was here. He slowly reached for his gun, and held it tightly as he reached the back door into the room where Zim was kept. Keeping firmly against the wall, he shoved the door open with his foot. Suddenly gunfire erupted in the darkness. glass at the other end of the room shattered. They had been waiting for him.

"Come out with your hands raised and your pak removed and we promise we won't hurt you"

Yeah right. He grabbed a metal disk from the counter behind him, and slowly he held it out towards the door. Using it as a mirror he could count four Irkens in the room with Zim. Shit. His stomach tightened. There were too many! Even with his experience with fighting Zim, he'd never be able to take them all, he'd be overpowered. He didn't even have real pak legs.  
An incredible sense of hopelessness settled upon him. He was going to fail. Zim was going to die and it was all his fault.

But then he came crashing down to earth (figuratively speaking) and his brain went into overdrive. He was in a laboratory! The Irkens inside were wearing simply guards. This was his territory, he was at an advantage.

"Ok" he shouted, trying to make as much noise as possible with his voice to cover the actions of his hands.

"You got me! I surrender"

"Really? That was easy." One of them mumbled happily.

"Put your pak on the ground where we can see it! We have to disable the arms"

"Of course" Dib said holding a 5litre bottle of water. Of course they had the stuff in a lab. To them it was just another acid. Inside a small wad of tissue paper was a sliver of potassium. He screwed the tissue into the lid so that it hung above the liquid, and threw the bottle through the door. He ducked behind the wall as it exploded. There were screams from the next room as the guards were soaked. It wouldn't kill them, but it would make the next part easier.

Dib looked round the door frame at the room, gun in hand, and fired. He hit one of them on the arm just as he began to extract his pak legs. Water dripped off everything. He shot again, and he guard went down. He kept on shooting as he advanced into the room. Adrenaline rushed through his veins. Glass shattered as he missed his target. Finally a bullet hit home, and another guard dropped to his knees. A third guard was on the floor immobilized by pain. He was covered in water. He must have been closest to the blast. That meant the fourth one was-  
Something slammed into his back. He crashed to the. Ground, the gun went flying out from his hand.

"You despicable piece of shit!" The fourth guard screamed.

Dib rolled over and struck out with His legs just as the guard launched himself at Dib. His legs caught him in the gut. He dropped to the ground. Dib unsteadily got to his feet. The guard Spat Blood at him, and used his pak legs to raise himself.

He lunged at Dib again pak legs in attack. Dib dodged again, but this time the spike hit home, gouging into his chest. It didn't go very deep, luckily it hit a rib. Dib gasped in shock, and promptly brought his head down to butt the Irken in the face. He reeled back.

"Argh what the Fuck!" He screamed "use your pak legs what the Fuck is wrong with you? Are you an Irken or what?"

"No." Dib said clutching at his chest.

"What?"

"No I will not use my pak and no I am not Irken."

He switched off the IDM and advanced. The guard's jaw dropped in shock. Instead of an Irken soldier, a young alien with a large head and strange black fibres coming from the top of his head stood before him. Though this creature was grotesque, the most terrifying thing about it was the look in its eyes. Sheer determination and fear. The guard fainted.

Dib let out a small whimper of pain, which mingled with the moans coming from the Irken left writhing in water, and made his way to Zim's container. It was empty, the glass smashed, gel liquid covered the floor. He hadn't even noticed, but during the fight a stray bullet or perhaps his potassium bomb had broken open Zim's prison. He found Zim lying a little way from the tube, carried there by the current of gel. He lay face down on the floor, the chord from his back to his pak was severed. It was severed. Oh no. panic welled up in dibs gut, how long had it been? Five? Ten minutes? He couldn't die now! He scrambled back toward the pedestal and grabbed Zim's pak off of it. It was still wide open with all sorts of things sticking out, but there was no time Right now. He hurriedly plugged it into Zim's back and gingerly picked him up.

As he reached the door, he heard one of the guards who had regained consciousness call in for back up. He grabbed his gun from the floor at the entrance to lab -201 and began to run. Zim was light. He didn't seem to have grown at all since he left, but he had definitely lost weight. He jabbed the ground level button on the elevator, and briefly lay Zim on the floor, while he used the. Spittle runner's remote control to bring it crashing into the entrance of the ICL. The elevator doors opened and dib picked up Zim again. He made it inside the spittle runner before reinforcements arrived, and was lifting out of the rubble of the ICL when they began to fire. He put his thrusters to full blast and rocketed up into the atmosphere, guards in pursuit.

The spittle runner was small, but it packed a heavy punch. Dib shot at the guard ships as he flew higher. They didn't look like they were built to go the distance, and probably couldn't even clear the atmosphere. He managed to hit a few as they came close, but the spittle runner also suffered a few minor injuries. He shifted the ship into wk4 and cleared the atmosphere. As he predicted the guards pulled up short, and hovered there expectantly. Dib ignored them. It wouldn't be long before they sent something bigger after them, and he wasn't going to stick around to find out. He had to get out and he had to get out now.

**DISCLEAIMER: I DONT OWN IZ OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS**

**call me butter because im on a roll! **

**finally zim has arrived, im honestly so happy you all stuck around until now and didnt get bored or anything ily!**

**if you like this, please review! even if you have before, i always like to hear what you think of a certain chapter! **

**so do the thing, and ill see you all in chapter 10! 3**

**mia out~**


	10. Chapter 10

**PART 1**

The spittle runner rocketed deep into the inky nothing of space. Dib set it to full speed and engaged autopilot, before gently hooking his arms back under Zim's arms and knees. He tried to push himself up out of the pilot seat, Zim in his lap but collapsed back into the chair, wincing in pain. Blood had soaked through his jumper, and the gash on his chest burned madly. He took a few gasping breaths before pushing himself up again. This time he made it up, still clutching Zim tightly he stumbled to the back of the spittle runner toward the small bed in the hollow wall. He carefully laid Zim on his stomach, face to the side, to prevent any further damage to his pak

Dib fumbled frantically through the cupboards on the walls. There had to be a first aid kit in here somewhere. He shoved food packets, small containers and clothes aside as he searched, cursing himself for not being more organised. He had definitely seen one in here when he had been stacking the shelves with food and other provisions, it had to be somewhere. Finally his hand closed around something big and square. He dragged it off one of the shelves, knocking down bottles and jars as it came.

He lay it on the floor, and flipped up the lid. Inside was an assortment of bandages, needles, medicine, scalpels, scissors, spare pak pieces and other medical equipment. Dib ripped off his jumper, picked out some antiseptic and smeared it on his wound. It stung. He quickly covered the cut in gauze and taped it down with medical tape. Done.

He was still in a lot of pain when he dragged the medical kit to the bed. Zim hadn't moved. Dib checked for a pulse, his fingers touching his cool flesh. It was faint, but it was there. A small wave of relief crashed over Dib. He sat himself on the side of the bed, and placed the medical kit in from of him. Zim was small and there was plenty of room for the both of them. It was a little cramped height wise, but he'd manage. Dib turned on a small light that was above the bed. It shone down on Zim's naked body. Dib felt a bit uncomfortable with how exposed Zim was, and threw his jumper over his lower half. His poor Irken had been humiliated enough, he deserved some privacy.

Zim's pak was a mess. Dib barely knew where to start. He was worried that the few weeks he'd spent studying Irken science and medicine wouldn't be enough to help him. He rummaged through the box until he found a small IV bag. Hadn't he read that a glucose solution could be used in an emergency as a temporary life sustaining source of nutrition for Irkens? He double checked with the computer before proceeding to mix a batch of sugar and distilled water to form the drip. Bringing Zim's arm up by his head, so that the back of his hand was facing up, he gently pushed a needle into a vein and taped it down. He attached the drip, and looked for somewhere to hang it from. There were no convenient hooks, so he settled for shoving the top of the bag into a drawer and sellotaping it down. It would do for now but Zim would need proper nutritional supplements soon if he was going to male it.

Finally he took a look at Zim's pak. His hands were shaking and the butterflies in his stomach were nauseating. If he messed this up, Zim might never wake up. Dib took several deep shuddering breaths before finally taking hold of one of the utensils stuck side. Most of them were just to keep the wires apart, but right in the middle was a small metal device. That shouldn't be there. Several wires had been stripped and were now attached to it. He was going to have to rewire his pak. The wires were colour coded, but if he reattached them in the wrong order he might cause Zim's pak to short circuit. Or over heat. Or melt. He had to make sure he did this perfectly.

/0\\\\\\\\\\\

Lod shivered as she was stripped from her clothes. She felt numb and defenceless, her pak disabled. She couldn't believe this was happening.  
She'd been brought back to irk and into a building that she'd heard from a conversation between the guards was called the ICL. She'd only gotten a brief glance of front of the building as they had lead her through the entrance, and she saw that it was mostly caved in and under repair. The shoved her toward the elevator and down into the subterranean layers.

And now she stood, her world falling apart before her, stark naked in front of cold staring scientists. One of them approached her.

"I'm just administering an anaesthetic" the scientist said shortly, grabbing her arm.

"Wait! Please!" Lod begged, fear rising "tell me what's going on!"

But the needle had already been stuck into her arm. She immediately felt woozy, and found it difficult to keep her balance. The room tilted and she slumped forward. The scientist stepped back quickly, and she fell to the floor.

"Please" she mumbled "what did I do wrong"

The light was fading fast, her face felt like there were a thousand ants beneath her skin. The floor was spinning, it was spinning so fast. She heard cold footsteps coming towards her and then nothing.

/0\\\\\\\\\

Cross referencing every couple of minutes, Dib managed to work his way through fixing Zim's pak. Removing the strange device was the hardest part, but once he'd figured out the order to rewire it, he got right to delicately twisting them back together. Red was first. He carefully unwrapped it from the metal insert, and wound it tightly together, reconnecting the wire. He wrapped it in electric tape and paused. Zim's pak made a quiet whirring noise before it stabilized. Dib breathed, wiping his brow of the sweat that had gathered there. His systems didn't seem to be overheating yet.

Next was the blue. It was supposed to connect to a tiny transistor half way. He slowly disconnected it, then delved back into the medical kit to look for something small to connect it to the transistor. He found a tiny pair of electrical pliers and cautiously used them to connect the blue to the transistor. He wrapped it in electrical tape and listened. There was a small whirring and then silence. So far so good.

He reconnected a couple more wires before he got to the last set of wires. They were pink. He twisted them together and wrapped them in tape, and again, he listened for the quiet Whirring. Instead he heard a click, and the pak began to vibrate violently. This didn't look good.

"No," Dib shook, trying frantically to cool down the pak "no no no no! No Zim, please"

He panicked as began to blow on the pak, fanning it with a small piece of cardboard hid shaking hands had pulled from the medical kit. What happened? Hadn't he done it right? But how could he have been wrong, he'd triple checked everything!

Eventually the pak began to quieten. The vibrations grew fainter, and the fanning seemed to help cool it down. Dib took a pair of tweezers and slowly removed the little metal device from Zim's pak when he was entirely sure it was cooled, he removed the pieces of metal holding the wires apart and shut it.

Nothing happened. Zim's eyes didn't fly open, he didn't groan or sigh. His pak legs didn't suddenly activate and stab at Dib. He lay there in exactly the same position Dib had left him, and didn't move a muscle.

Dibs heart sank. He tried to reassure himself. Sometimes fixing a pak could take up to 3 days to work again. He had to stay positive.

He got up and lifted Zim again, manoeuvring him around so that he lay on his back. His pak sank into the memory foam allowing him to lie horizontally. Dib grabbed the sheet and covered Zim with it, tucking it under the mattress to hold him in place in case the ride got bumpy. He gently lowered Zim's arms to the outside of the sheet and lay them alongside his torso.

Something caught his eye. A pale stretch of scar tissue on his shoulder, a small circle with a cross inside. It was the symbol of earth Dib had cut into Zim's skin over a year ago. His breath caught in his throat. He traced the small scar with his fingertips and as he did, he couldn't stop the warm tears from spilling over his lashes, making his glasses fog up

"Please Zim be ok" he sobbed "Stupid Fucking idiot, you wouldn't listen." He squeezed Zim's hand tightly.

"Please" he whispered.

/0\\\\\\\\\

Gaz stood over 5 Irken bodies, dripping in their pinkish blood. Nope. She strode to the bottom of the stairs, through sticky puddles of the stuff, and up to her room. She grabbed her rucksack from under her bed, and stuffed it with clothes, underwear and some books. She grabbed the phone Dib had given her from a shelf and chucked that into the bag too. Then she made her way to the bathroom and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant, face wipes, tampons, pads and a towel from the shelves. They joined her clothes. Shouldering the bag, she made her way back downstairs and to the kitchen. She would rather die than admit that the recent scuffle with the aliens had shaken her up. She avoided their lifeless bodies as she went to the. Kitchen. She grabbed a plastic bag from the cupboard, and began to fill it with everything on the shelves. When it was full she grabbed another and filled that too. She took all the food with her, and several large bottles of water. She could always recycle that. Grabbing her jacket and hat from the floor, she carried the bags out to the back door.

There it was. It was disguised, but after years of interacting with Zim, she become smart enough to recognise a cloaked Irken ship when she saw one. Besides, there hadn't been a giant floating pig in the garden. Before.

She ran her hand along the surface until she found the hatch, and opened it. The disguise immediately disappeared. A sleek purple ship hovered before her with the words "chart hopper" emblazoned in red on the side. She climbed inside, dragging her bags of food and clothes in behind her, and shut the door.

The first thing she did once inside, was check for a ship personality. She'd learnt from her brothers mistakes. When She had found it, she hit delete.

"**_Approval needed_**" the computer boomed.

She sighed and took her game slave from her pocket. Plugging it into the control panel, she hit some buttons and watched as the numbers whizzed by on the screen. It was amazing what you could do with these things if you knew how. There was a click sound and then.

**_"Access approved, personality deleted. Would you like to replace? Y/N?"_**

Gaz hurriedly hit "N" and began pressing buttons. She had picked up a little Irken herself but not a lot. Admittedly she'd started to learn it just to annoy Dib, hoping she'd be better at it than him. She wasn't and she had grown bored of it very quickly. Flying this ship was going to be difficult. After a few false starts, she finally got the ship to lift up and into the atmosphere.

/0\\\\\\\\\

Dib was sitting on the floor leaning with his back against the bed where Zim was lying unconscious. his eyes shut, glasses in hand, his face now free of tears. He was just cleaning his glasses on his jumper when he got the call. He jumped up and walked over to the control panel, slumping down in the pilots chair before grabbing the phone from the glove compartment and answering.

"Hello?" His voice was gruff from crying.

"Dib?" Gaz's voice sounded small.

"Yeah? What's up, are you ok?" he hadn't expected to hear from her.

"No, are you?"

"No" he rubbed his eyes. "What's happened?"

"Some of your friends paid me a visit."

"My friends?"

"Irkens."

"Really?"

"No Dib" she said sarcastically. "Of course they did why would I lie? They weren't exactly friendly either, they kept saying something about how I was a key, and they tried to bring me back to the massive."

"What happened?"

"Well obviously I sorted them out."

"Mm." Dib shuddered at her words. No doubt their last moments had been filled with terror. "Did they hurt you? Where are you now?"

"I'm ok, I grabbed their chart hopper and legged it. I think it's better that I exit planet earth for a while."

"Yeah probably."

He was relieved that she was ok, but then she asked him something that surprised him. There was a pause.

"What about you? What happened?"

She could tell Dib was surprised. After years of giving him a cold shoulder she wasn't sure what else she had expected. She had always been so afraid of forming any sort of emotional attachment, and as a result had distanced herself. But she wanted to change, she wanted it so much, she couldn't handle being this alone anymore.

"Well" Dib hesitated, unsure of whether she seriously wanted to know, "I found Zim."

"That's good right?"

"Not really he-" he choked on the words "he's not doing so well. Gaz I think he's going to die."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"He's not dead yet though."

Dib couldn't believe it. Was she trying to comfort him? A fresh wave of tears rolled silently down his cheeks.

"Gaz there's a very high chance that the Irken armada has sent people after me. I don't know how safe this line is."

"Right. We need to organise a rendezvous."

"Not now, I'll send you an encrypted file soon."

"Would you be able to send me an Irken English dictionary or something? The computer here hasn't got English on its database and I'm really struggling with the controls."

"Of course."

"Thanks. And Dib?"

"Yes?"

"Stay strong"

The line went dead.

Gaz seemed different. He'd only been gone about 5 months and yet she'd been nicer to him in 5 minutes than she had been in 19 years. He rubbed his eyes on his sleeve and got to work looking for a suitable rendezvous.

/0\\\\\\\\\

Red was furious.

"I can't believe Zim escaped, he's the worst invader ever? Who on irk would want to save him? And now you're telling me that the team of invaders we dispatched to capture the human failed too?" he screamed at the tiny Irken messenger who stood quivering before him.

"Yes my tallest. We haven't heard word from them since their landing, and out probes show the human female is missing."

"Missing? How can she be missing?"

"Her bio-pattern is no longer showing up on the planet my tallest."

"You let another one get away?" He fumed. "Guards! Escort this despicable creature from my sight!"

The small Irken tried to bow before being roughly grabbed by the Arms and dragged out backwards.

"Relax red," purple said coming up behind him and grabbing his shoulders gently. "It's no fun when you're in a twist."

"Since losing Zim were down to only 3 keys! And the ICL hasn't managed to get even a fragment of the information out of them! Top scientists my ass."

"Don't worry about them for now," purple breathed into his ear, rubbing his shoulders with his fingers. "We'll get them all and we'll get the plans for the weapon, don't you worry. I think we should go after the big fish."

"Professor Teri?" Red moaned quietly. Purple ways knew the best places to touch him.

"Yes and when we do, the rest will fall in place." He licked the side of reds neck all the way up until his chin, where he nibbled His skin.

"Guards!" Red said urgently "leave us"

They obediently filed out the door.  
Red turned to purple, and roughly grabbing his antennae he pushed him up against he controls. Purple purred.

/0\\\\\\\

Gaz had sent him her current coordinates, and He'd decided on a small moon as their rendezvous. It would take them a month and a half to reach it. Dib had plenty of time for a quick stop to get some more medical supplies first. There was a small trading planet two weeks from the spittle runner's current location, and well on route to their rendezvous. If Dib left now he'd be able to get there just as the last of the sugar and water ran out. He needed to get Zim the nutritional drip. It would be difficult without any real money, the Irken bank had frozen his account and deleted his false credits, and he only had about 500 saved on a portable electronic wallet. He'd have to do it one way or another.

According to the computer, the planet seemed to be a pirate planet, run mostly by Vortians. Irkens would not be popular there, so disguising himself as one would probably not work well in his favour. Unfortunately, Irken was the only alien language he knew. He would probably be better off not disguising himself at all and hoping for the best.

/0\\\\\\\

Over the next couple of weeks, Dib spent more and more time with Zim. He'd sit on the edge of the bed, hold Zim's hand in his, and talk to him. Dib reasoned that if Zim was in a coma, then maybe talking to him would help wake him up.

And so he spoke to him, gently telling him everything.

He told him about earth, he told him about finishing school. He told him about turning 20 and about how lonely he'd felt.  
He told him about how much he'd missed their fights or their weird alliance, or even just seeing him around during their worst days. He told him about his strong sense of unshakable wanderlust, how he had to visit the stars and leave his planet behind. He told him how he'd decided to leave earth, and left in the spittle runner, a journey that had ultimately lead him to an urge to find Zim. He talked about infiltrating the massive and about how he'd gotten into the archives and raised Lod's suspicions. He told him how he'd walked into the trap in the ICL and how he'd broken him out. Sometimes he'd talk about anything and everything, telling him stories of the Stars, or reminding him of when they were kids. Sometimes he would just narrate what we was doing. Either way he would try to fill the void with words to keep him company.

"It's a little colder this morning" Dib said covering Zim in the only duvet.

"I think the spittle runner is a little low on fuel so the heating isn't working so well."

He sat on the edge of the bed and took Zim's hand in his.

"I hope my fingers aren't too cold, I'm wearing the biggest jacket I could find and I still feel freezing."

He paused.

"The cut on my chest has pretty much healed, you were right, Irken medicine is much better than earth medicine."

Still no movement. Dib sighed.

"I wish you would wake up Zim, you're worrying me to death. Sometimes I think you're just doing this to piss me off. If you are its worked and you can stop now." He said hopefully.

Nothing. He watched Zim's chest rise and fall gently. Sometimes it would look like he'd stopped breathing, and Dib would panic, frantically searching for a pulse. That's why he would hold Zim's hand in his, that way he would always feel his pulse. At least that's what he told himself.

"Please promise me you'll hold on until I can get you the proper drip? Promise you'll wake up?" He tried not to choke on his words as emotion welled up inside him, and the thought of losing him after all this took over.

On good days he'd walk back to the captain's chair in the cockpit, and busy himself with co-ordinates and controls, or the english-Irken guide he'd been writing up for Gaz. literally anything to keep his mind off of it.

Bad days found him lying on the floor next to Zim's bed silently weeping, please let him wake up.

That had been last week. Now the small pirate planet was within sight, its pink cloudy atmosphere speckled with hovering space crafts. He would have to be careful here.

/0\\\\\\\\\\\\\

He landed in a small alleyway next to a dozen other ships. This planet didn't seem to have hangars. He honestly didn't feel comfortable leaving Zim here like this, but he had no other choice. At least this way he had a chance of helping him. As he left, he triple checked that he'd locked the doors, and set the spittle runners disguise to a large rubbish bin. That would have to do.

After 15 minutes of wandering, he eventually found what looked like a small bar, and went inside. It was quiet and dark, exactly the kind of grubby low life hangout you'd expect to find on a pirate planet. The corners of the room hung in thick darkness, concealing the figures that Dib knew Sat there. He could hear their voices, see the lights of their cigarettes as they brought them up to their mouths. He turned to the bar. A few different aliens hung around, drinking from tall glasses. The bartender turned to him, and said something in a strange alien tongue. Dib didn't know how to respond. The bartender tried again, this time in a different language. Still nothing.

"How about Irken? Everybody speaks Irken these days."

"Yes." Dib replied with relief.

"Alright, what can I get you?"

"Water?" He asked uncertainty.

The bartender cackled.

"Water? We've got ourselves a regular joker here!"

"What do you have?"

"How drunk do you want to get?"

"I don't."

"Everybody wants to get drunk!" The bartender laughed "we have Floob, that doesn't have much alcohol in."

"Ok I'll try one of those."

The bartender handed him a tall purple glass with some strange orange liquid in it. There was a layer of nasty looking scum that floated on the surface.

"That's 3 credits."

Dib reluctantly transferred some of his remaining money to the bartender.

"Thankin' ya"

He gingerly took a sip from the strange liquid and almost choked. This wasn't barely alcoholic, in fact, he wasn't even sure it was safe for human consumption. The bartender looked at him expectantly.

"It's fruity" Dib managed.

"What part of the cosmos are you from friend?" he grinned.

Dib hesitated. He wasn't sure it was such a good idea to talk about his planet yet unconquered. He settled for:

"Faraway"

"Fair enough" the bartender conceded "many folks who come here would rather not say where they're from. Stands to reason. What's you're after however is different. No one comes here, who doesn't already live here, who's not looking for something. What are you after?"

"Medicine." Dib said

"I might be able to point you in the right direction. What race is the medicine for?"

Dib leaned in, unsure of whether it was wise to say it out loud.

"Irken" he said under his breath.

The bartenders face darkened.

"I see. That table on the left, doctor Nik can help you."

"Thank you" Dib said downing his drink.

"You didn't hear it from me." The bartender said going back to wiping the counter.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own iz or its characters**

**Hi guys! So I reached chapter 10, and I thought id celebrate by making the chapter extra long. I originally aimed for 10 pages, but over shot it a bit and hit 14! I thought it would be better and more accessible if I uploaded it in two parts! (that why it sat pt1 at the top)**

**I know im uploading the both of them in one go, but if you decide to review, please let me know what you think of each chapter as I love to get feedback! **

**See you in part 2!**


	11. Chapter 11

**PART 2**

Dib walked over to the table he'd been pointed to. There were three people sitting there. One of them was Vortian. He didn't recognise the other two, they were a race he'd never encountered before.

"Are you doctor Nik?" He said to the small pink alien who was closest to him.

The alien looked confused, but the Vortian burst out laughing.

"Who him? Not a chance! He couldn't find your heart with an x-ray!" She said.

"Hey!" The pink alien replied indignantly.

"Are you doctor Nik?" He asked the Vortian.

"No, she doesn't come out often. I'm her middle man. What can I do you for?"

"I'm looking for some medicine," he said quietly sitting in the booth. "For an Irken"

"All right what have you got?" she said not missing a beat.

"Not much," Dib admitted "500 credits."

"Yeah I can hook you up" she said "but you'll have to give me something as commission."

"I don't have any more money" he said.

"Hmm." She blew a smoke ring, "I'll take your jacket."

Dib looked down at his jacket. It was an old leather duster his father had given him. It had a lot of sentimental value, but if giving it up meant saving Zim, so be it.

"It's yours."

"Alright! Looks like we've got ourselves a deal!" She stood up "come with me."

She waved to her friends, and sauntered out the door.

/0\\\\\\\

Dib followed her out into the brisk night. He would be sad to give up his coat, especially because it looked like rain.

She led him through the winding streets.

"Remember the way" she'd said "I won't bring you back"

And so he followed and looked out for landmarks.

She stopped at a small green door took a set of keys from her pocket and let herself in. Dib followed uncertainly. This could be a trap. They went up a set of rickety metal stairs, slowly and in single file. They creaked dangerously beneath them and Dib was afraid they would fall. They didn't.

The Vortian opened another door at the top of the stairs and held it open for Zim. Inside was a small apartment, cosy and warm, a small sofa covered in red throws, a tiny candle lamp in the window, and a low bed covered in a mess of purple sheets in the corner. A girl turned toward them as they entered.

"Back already loveliest?" she asked.

Dib froze. She was Irken. She was short and a little wide and had beautiful red eyes.

"Yeah, I have some business with me"

"How many times have I told you not to bring business home?"

"Not enough dear"

The Irken sighed and turned to Dib.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"Are you Dr. Nik?"

"That depends."

"I need some medicine for my friend. He's Irken. I think he's in some kind of a coma."

"I see. Do you have money?"

"No worries, we made good on that. Transfer it over would you?" the Vortian said cheerfully.

Dib obediently transferred her the money.

"And your jacket"

He took it off and threw it to her.

"Alright we're good hook him up."

"You're going to want IV bags of nutrition right?"

Dib nodded.

"Can you describe how he became comatose? It'll help me determine which iv I should give him"

"I don't really know, I just found him like that."

"Was he in any accidents? Any hospitals or laboratory facilities? Is he allergic to anything?"

"Actually I found him in a lab..."

Doctor Nik hesitated.

"Would it be possible for me to view the patient?"

"Aw come on! I already told him we wouldn't bring him back!" the Vortian protested.

/0\\\\\

It had begun to rain, and by the time the trio emerged from the doorway it was coming down at a steady pace. Dib walked out into the downpour followed by Dr. Nik and the Vortian. The rain fell gently on dibs face. It had been a long time since he'd felt anything like this. It was refreshingly wonderful, and reminded him of home. He smiled. But seconds later he began to feel an uncomfortable sensation as the rain ran down his skin. It was sore and unpleasant and itchy and painful and-

"Argh!" Dib suddenly cried out, throwing his arms over his head "it stings!"

"Doesn't it rain on your planet?" The Vortian asked incredulously.

"Yes but water, not sulphuric acid!" Dib said dashing back into the shelter of the doorway.

"Dade give him back his jacket" Dr. Nik sighed.

"Fine whatever" Dade threw it back reluctantly.

Dib caught it and threw it over his head, the leather serving as a barrier between himself and the elements. How very ironic. After years of tormenting Zim with rain, he finally got a dose of his own medicine.

/0\\\\\\\

Dib ran his fingers along the side of the large skip until he found the hatch and threw it open. The spittle runner's disguise immediately faded.

"He's in here" Dib said climbing inside.

Dr. Nik swung herself in after him, and Dade followed. It was too tight, Dib could barely move, his back pressed up against the bed, squished against Dr. Nik.

"Dade get out" Dib said struggling not to be pushed down on top of Zim.

"You get out!"

"I'm not leaving him, besides it's my ship!"

"Well I'm not going out there, it's raining."

"The rain literally burns my skin!"

"Shhhhhh," Dr. Nik cut in, "loveliest, please sit in the pilot seat."

Dade huffed and clambered into the cockpit.

"And you" she said turning her bright red eyes on Dib "please stand back I need room."

Dib obediently stood back but he watched the doctor like a hawk. He still wasn't sure he could trust her just yet.

She sat down on the bed next to Zim, and opened the bag she'd brought with her. She listened for his pulse. hmmm. Next she lifted his eyelids and touched his eyes. They twitched.

"Well he's responsive, that's good." She looked at Zim's frail figure and hesitated. Dib had dressed him in some of his clothes; boxers and a t-shirt, but his face was unmistakable. "Wait, it couldn't be."

"What?" Dib said anxiously

"This Irken, he isn't- he couldn't be- is he Zim?"

Dibs jaw dropped.

"You know Zim?" He asked in disbelief.

"Know him?" she laughed "No. Zim is the most infamous Irken alive. But I've heard rumours..."

"What rumours?"

"I heard he was banished for being defective,"

Dib nodded, that much was true.

"But the tallest recaptured him. They reckon that he is a key." She finished.

"What is this key thing? I've heard it a couple of times now."

"This key thing" Dade said leaning on the back of the pilot's seat "is a load of crap.  
"Basically there was some Irken scientist named prof. tori or something, and he discovered a way to open up rifts in space to parallel universes, which could ultimately be used as a weapon. When he discovered how dangerous it could be, he hid the information in different species of alien. 2 Irkens, 2 Vortians, himself and one other unknown species has a key. Something like that. All that just to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. If the tallest get their hands on all the keys they would be able to do anything, like destroy the galaxy or take over the world you know."

"How did he put information in them?"

"I don't know I'm not a doctor, probably by altering their brainwaves or rewriting the unused parts of their brains." Dade shrugged.

"Why didn't he just destroy it?"

"Pride" Dr. Nik said without looking up from Zim. "I can imagine it would be hard destroying your entire life's work. Decades just thrown away? He probably thought it was safer hidden. Maybe someday it could have helped us.  
"Now the tallest have found his records. He was foolish enough to write down the keys with the information. You have to keep Zim safe. If they get all the keys there's no telling what they could do."

"I will." Dib said with such conviction that the doctor could only nod in agreement. She believed him.

Dr. Nik hooked up the IV with the medicine, and took a needle and a bottle of liquid from her bag. She filled the syringe, and inserted it into Zim's arm.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Dib said uneasily, watching Dr. Nik inject Zim.

"You don't, but you must believe I don't want this Irken to come to harm. The serum I injected him with should start to work within a couple of days. Keep him on the drip for now. And keep him warm."

"What if it doesn't work after a couple of days?"

"Then there's nothing we can do for him." She stood up to leave. "If you're ever this way again, I'm ways here. Good luck."

"Thank you."

"Later weirdo!" Dade said hopping out of the spittle runner, and catching Dr. Nik who jumped down after her.

"Oh wait! Here" Dib said throwing his jacket at her.

"I thought you were going to keep it?"

"No way. I owe you."

Dade shrugged and put it on.

/0\\\\\\\

They watched as the spittle runner pulled out of the damp alleyway and into the night sky.

"Why did you help? Him?" Dade asked letting the rain fall on her face as she looked up.

"I almost feel responsible. Besides he's just a young man trying to save his boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Dade said turning to Nik. The yellow street lamp shone golden on her eyes.

"It's just a vibe I got. He reminds me of you when you first showed up at my door."

"Except I'm much prettier." Dade grinned leaning in.

"Of course my loveliest."

They kissed briefly, and hurried back home in the cold dark.

/0\\\\\\\

On the first day Dib was anticipant. On the second day he was hopeful. On the third day he was distraught and on the Fourth day he'd given up all hope. By the end of the week he was numb.

He was drifting slowly in the direction of his and Gaz's rendezvous point and shivering with cold, having covered Zim in all the blankets and spare clothes he had. He'd refilled the spittle runner's tanks on the pirate planet, but there still seemed to be something wrong with the heating. His ship was going at just 1wk, he was too disorientated to travel with any real purpose. It didn't take long before the Irkens caught up with him.

It wasn't the entire armada, only three ships. Three faster stealthier ships. He hadn't seen them coming at all**.**

**"Incoming transmission"** the computer announced.

Dib snapped out of his trance and glanced up. Incoming transmission? The receiver before him started to crackle, and a bright hologram bloomed before him. It was one of the guards he'd fought at the museum, the one who'd fainted.

"Hello Bid," he sneered

"I'm not giving him to you!" Dib said, panicked rising in his chest.

"A come on! If you hand him over, we won't harm you, we will leave your ship intact and reward you 1,000,000 credits. The tallest themselves will make sure you have your every need catered to."

"No, I don't care about that stuff!" He could tell the guard was lying and even if he wasn't it wouldn't matter. "I just want Zim!"

"What on irk is wrong with you? You'd give up all that just to keep some idiot defective?"

The guard was frustrated. He didn't. Understand what dibs problem was. Who the hell wouldn't make that swap?

"I don't care I'm not giving up Zim."

Hopefully, if he was right, they wouldn't dare fire upon them for risk of harming Zim. He was wrong. The guard looked at the end of his tether, and regardless of orders, he wanted to make Dib suffer.

"Have it your way" the guard said and cut the transmission.

Dibs His heart hammered in his chest. He had to go right now. He set the spittle runner to full speed and was thrust back in his seat by the acceleration. Although he had a head start, His ship could only go 6wk. His pursuers could go 8wk. It wouldn't be long before they caught up to him.

His mind raced as he checked the ammunition. The spittle runner only had small guns. He was so screwed. A missile brought up the rear, threatening to slam into the ship. Dib pulled he ship up in the Nick of time. It missed by inches and whizzed past, smashing into the side of one of the other ships. It exploded, flames blossoming silently against the stars.

That was it. Dib only had one chance to defeat them. He couldn't use his tiny weapons against them, but he could use them against each other.

He had to make sure they aligned perfectly. He only had one shot at this.

They were coming in close now, one ship on either side of him.

"Please God let this work," he said gritting his teeth.

They pulled in closer. Closer. They were flying parallel to the spittle runner. Dib saw the missiles almost before the computer registered them on the sonar. He pulled the spittle runner straight up out of the direct collision course.

The explosion beneath him was huge. It sent the spittle runner careening violent upwards, along with rubble and flames. The ship rocked madly before spining further and further from the explosion. Dib struggled with the controls, eventually stabilizing the ship. It had worked. He sat back in his chair and took a few juddering breaths. There was a small rustling behind him.

"You couldn't fly even if you were a disgusting earth pigeon."

Dibs neck snapped round so fast he almost got whiplash. Zim was sitting up in the small bed, looking pale, but much much better.

For a moment Dib was frozen to the spot. He smiled so wide that it hurt, but he couldn't stop. A deluge of emotions washed over him, but the strongest were happiness and relief.

He scrambled out of his seat toward the bed, and had to be careful not to crash into Zim, who still looked fragile as he pulled him into a hug, arms wrapping as tightly as he dared around Zim's slender frame.

"Don't you dare do that ever again Zim." He said his voice choking up slightly as the inevitable flood of tears welled up behind his eyes, breaking the surface and rolling down his cheeks.

"Get your filthy hands off of me earth boy" Zim said hoarsely.

Dib didn't let go, and Zim made no attempt to push him away. In fact, his fingers curled gently into dibs t-shirt. He breathed in his smell. He'd missed that.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own iz or any of the characters**

**Alright! I hope you liked this mega long 2 part chapter, I had fun writing it anyway! ****J**

**I might be a little busy for a while after this, but I'll try to make sure I update again soon! Hopefully this will keep you all busy for a while. If you want to contact me about the story or updates or anything at all, I run tooot-sweet dot tumblr doc com. **

**I just want to say thank you to everybody who has ever left a review on my story so far, you guys are the reason I've been updating so much! **

**ill see you guys soon, and if you like it, please review! **

**Mia out~**


	12. Chapter 12

"No Dib stink I don't need your help!" He rasped, trying for the third time to get to his feet.

He wobbled, and fell forward again. Dib grabbed his arm to prevent a fall. Zim let out a frustrated groaned and wondered how long before he got his voice back. He had no control over his legs either, which had grown weak from almost a year of inactivity. He activated his pak legs, and used them as crutches, pushing Dib away from him. His pak legs were weak too, but stronger than his flesh one.

He staggered to the cockpit, and dropped heavily into the pilot's chair.

"Zim what are you doing? You're not going to drive? You just got out of a coma!"

"Shut your speak hole," Zim said in annoyance.

Dib climbed into the cockpit next to Zim, and leaned against the glass. It was a tight fit, the cockpit really wasn't built for two, but there was no way Dib was letting Zim out of his sight he was worried that he wasn't fully recovered.

Zim said nothing as Dib sat on the floor next to him, and began flicking controls. The silence was a little awkward. Before Zim and left, he had ignored Dib for months. Now they'd both shown so much emotion around the people they'd always put on a brave face around. Dib had saved Zim, but he wasn't sure he had wanted to be saved. He didn't really know where they stood at the moment. Zim broke the silence.

"Dib, you idiot thing, you didn't turn off the runners broadcast."

"What?"

"This" Zim sighed flicking a switch "sends out a frequency that can be detected by other ships. Your idiot brain thing never turned it off!"

"Oh. That reminds me actually I need to send Gaz a message"

"Why?" He demanded

"We're meeting her."

"Fine" he handed Dib the phone "this line is fine just use that."

Dib texted Gaz New coordinates to meet seeing as their last place probably wasn't such a good idea anymore.

"Position compromised. . Zim is awake" he texted.

The cockpit was silent again as Zim plotted the coordinates, and set the spittle runner to auto pilot.

"How do you feel?" Dib asked anxiously.

"Perfect. Zim has never felt better." He lied.

The room was quiet again. It felt like minutes before Zim finally cleared his throat and groggily demanded;

"Why-why" he repeated in frustration, trying in vain to force out his weak voice "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Why did you come to get me?"

Dib had to think about that. Curiosity? Adventure? Truthfully he was worried and he had missed him. He'd missed him. His heart missed a beat. He'd missed him.

"I don't know." He said quietly "aren't you glad?"

"I'm glad you didn't... get us killed."

Zim was glad, in fact he was ecstatic to see Dib, relieved he'd not been killed on his mindless rescue, proud that he'd managed to do it and annoyed at being held prisoner in the first place. There were so many difficult emotions running rampant through his small body and he was finding it difficult to process them all.

"I risked my life for you and you're glad I didn't get is killed? If I hadn't come to get you, you would have died."

"I didn't ask you to! Zim was fine!"

"Fine? You were just coma!"

"No I wasn't!"

"Yes you were!"

There was a brief silence. Zim looked away from dibs intense glare.

"Zim needs a few days to recollect himself." He rasped. It was almost an apology.

"Fine"

Dib climbed back out of the cockpit and dumped himself into him on the bed.

/0\\\

And so for the next couple of days Zim sat in the pilot's seat reading through the files on him Dib had stolen. When he wasn't reading, he was hungrily eating from a bag of sweets, or walking back and forth along the length of the ship trying to strengthen his legs. He didn't sleep and he didn't speak to dib, who watched him like a hawk.

Zim read as much as he possibly could, and it broke his heart. He had known his mission to earth had been a lie, but to see it written down was so much more painful. He read up on the experiments too, and every report filed since he'd left irk. By the end of two days he had read more than he could take.

He could remember barely anything about before they had stripped him of his rank and thrown him in a test tube. He didn't remember dib rescuing him, and he didn't remember how he'd gotten here. He glanced at Dib who was lying in the small bed sleeping. He'd almost managed to stay awake for the full two days to keep an eye on Zim. Almost.

A surge of emotions welled up inside him. He wasn't sure what they meant, fear, anger, joy, relief, comfort? How was it that Dib always gave him comfort? Zim had tried to detach himself form everyone, and yet that stupid human still managed to make him feel emotions. Disgusting.

After some thought, he shakily got to his feet and limped over to the bed. He sat on the edge and looked at dibs face. He looked so peaceful, so real. He looked down to the humans odd looking hands and wondered what they felt like. He reached out with his fingers and stroked his hand gently before grabbing it and shaking him awake.

"Earth boy" he hissed "wake!"

"Mmmmmmwha?" Dib mumbled pushing himself up to his Elbows.

Zim was blurry. Dibs eyes we're unfocused from sleep and he wasn't wearing his glasses.

"Zim?" He reached out until his hand found the fabric of Zim's borrowed clothes. They were warm and soft.

"Zim has decided to reconsider your offer Dib human, and he accepts." Zim's voice was stronger now though not fully recovered.

"What offer?" Dib said staring at the blur that was Zim.

"The alliance. Zim will become your ally on certain terms. Firstly, Zim drives the ship."

"Oh c'mon" Dib groaned, too asleep to argue "fine"

"Good. And secondly," he yawned, he was so tired, it had been a bad idea to stay up so long "you will obey Zim's orders."

"Not if I don't think they're reasonable."

"Zim is always reasonable"

"Not always"

"Liar," Zim was also too tired to argue "now move over,"

He had so quickly abandoned the conversation that Dib was taken aback, it was so unusual for Zim to compromise, especially so quickly.

The truth was that Zim was frightened. He couldn't afford to be alone, and despite everything, Dib was really the only creature in the universe that he could trust. He needed him.

Zim slid under the sheets next to him, and turned onto his side. Dib was left with his back against the wall and Zim's pak digging uncomfortably into his chest. The bed was small and they were pressed together like sardines.

It was only a few seconds before Zim's breathing slowed and he fell into a long awaited sleep. Dib however lay there suddenly wide awake and very aware of Zim's warm skin pressed up against his. His heart beat a little faster as he lay stock still. Hours seemed to pass before he even began to feel sleepy. He felt his whole body slowly relax as His eyelids fell heavily over his drowsy eyes, and his head nodded forward. Zim's skin smelled faintly of the gel and formaldehyde he'd been kept in, but mostly it just smelled warmth and sweetness and Zim.

/0\\\\\\\

Three fully armed Irken elite soldiers burst into the spittle runner shouting orders in Irken.

"Seize him!" The tallest one said.

The two smaller ones rushed forward and grabbed Zim's arms, dragging him from the tiny bed.

"No!" Zim screamed in Irken, his eyes wide with fear.

Dib could do nothing but watch as Zim was dragged from the bed and onto the floor. His legs felt like lead and he couldn't move or even speak. The Irken soldiers pulled out guns and aimed them at Zim's head.

"Fire."

"No!"

Dib sat up sharply in bed, covered in sweat. He threw his arms protectively around Zim's shivering figure. He was sitting up in the bed too. Dib breathed heavily for a few seconds before realising they were alone. It was a nightmare.

Zim had sat up seconds before Dib. He'd had a nightmare too, but more importantly;

"Zim is cold" a shiver shook through his body.

It was true, Zim's skin was freezing, but his pak was burning up. That's not good. Dib's quickly let go of him.

"do you feel ill?" dib asked climbing over His legs, he jumping out of the bed.

"c-cold,"

"Hang on Zim" He said grabbing the first aid box, and rummaging through it.  
"I think it's an Irken fever."

Zim Sat shivering in the bed, pulling the blankets up to his chin. He was very pale and his antennae shook violently atop his head.

"Here, you have to keep warm" Dib said grabbing his clothes from a drawer and throwing them at Zim.

He pulled them around him in a sort of nest. Dib sat on the bed next to him, and put his hand on Zim's forehead. Not good. Zim was dangerously cold. If he didn't warm up soon-

Zim's hand shot out of the nest and grabbed dibs wrist.

"You are warm Dib thing," he mumbled quietly, clutching at the humans warm hands.

"Here" Dib held out a small pink tablet "this should help"

Zim dutifully took it from him and swallowed it.

"I'm going to make you some warm syrup now" Dib said making to get up.

"Don't, I'm cold," Zim said feebly.

"This will help Zim, let go." He said gently prying his fingers from his hand.

"Promise you'll come back" Zim murmured.

"I'm not going anywhere" Dib assured him.

The little alien settled back into the nest of blankets and clothes. He wasn't himself, but fevers often caused Irkens to become delirious and childlike. It was a malfunction in their paks that tampered with their personality chip, and if it wasn't treated properly they could suffer from permanent personality loss. Dib was worried. Unsettling butterflies flew helter-skelter in his stomach. He couldn't let him become like that. He couldn't lose his Zim.

He hurried over to the counter and grabbed the hotplate, plugging it in. He set a small collapsible pot on it and filled it with sugar and a small amount of distilled water, just enough so the solution wasn't saturated. Dib had discovered through reading, that Irkens could consume water in small amounts provided it was distilled and untainted. When the sugar had dissolved, he poured it into a small cup, switched off the hotplate and brought the syrup over to Zim.

"Sit up" he ordered.

When Zim didn't respond, Dib dug his hands into the blankets, and pulled the small Irken up. He moaned.

"Drink this" Dib said handing him the cup.

Zim clutched it in his hands and brought it up to his lips. He took a small sip. "I can't" he moaned.

"Yes you can, c'mon drink it" Dib pushed it up to Zim's lips "please Zim"

This time Zim made a valiant effort. He drank about three quarters before choking a little.

"Noo" Zim moaned as Dib pushed the cup up to his lips one last time.

"Come on Zim, after this there's no more I promise"

Zim slurped down the last of it and grabbed Dib around the middle.

"Stay you're so warm."

"Alright let me just put the cup do-"

"No stay!"

"Ok Zim!" He lowered the cup to the floor and climbed into the bed next to him. Body heat was actually a good idea seeing as he needed zim to warm up quickly. Irkens heal so fast that Zim would probably be ok by the 'morning'. Time was easily lost in space. He lay flat and Zim snuggled into his side, his arms wrapping around his torso.

Dib didn't sleep. He lay there riddled with worry and guilt. He wasn't sure why but when their skin made contact it sent butterflies through him and he didn't want Zim to let go. But eventually he did.

Hours later when Zim woke, he sat up slowly, untangling himself from the human, and swinging his legs over the edge.

"How do you feel?" Dib asked, his voice full of concern.

"Zim is fine!" He snapped.

Dib sighed in relief. He certainly seemed back to normal.

"Let me check your temperature" Dib said reaching his hand toward Zim's for head. He swatted him away.

"Don't touch me earth boy"

"I just have to check!" He said, quickly brushing his fingers against Zim's forehead. Zim snapped his teeth at him, and Dib pulled back quickly. His temperature seemed normal, and he was acting normal too. Thank God. The fever had probably been the last of his body's healing process, hopefully now he would be ok.

Zim jumped out of the bed and walked over to the cockpit leaving Dib in the bed.

/0\\\\\\\\\\\\\

The small Irken forest was dark and windy and alive. Small critters screamed into the night sky as a bright comet flew closer, crashing into the Forrest floor. After several minutes the general alarm settled, and the alien creatures went back to screaming about sex and territory. The small comet lay in a burnt patch of foliage, and after a minute it began to hiss. A small door opened in the side, and it became clear that this comet was in fact an Irken escape pod. A dark figure shakily got out, and began the long and dangerous track back to civilization, muttering angrily as it went, about the bid creature and revenge.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own iz or its characters but you already know that.**

**Sorry about this one, how the hell was I supposed to follow the previous chapter?**

**I just moved up for college and im starting next week (im so excited)**

**If you liked it or if you hated it, review!**

**Mia out~**


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